Otterpool Park Targets 2028 Start as Homes England’s Hillhurst Farm Is Fast-Tracked for First 300 Homes

Construction of the first homes at Otterpool Park is now targeted to begin in 2028, with the first 38 homes forecast to be completed the following year.

But before a brick can be laid, another planning application will be required for the first 300 homes proposed on Homes England’s Hillhurst Farm land.

That timetable was brought sharply into focus on 30 September 2026, when councillors representing Lympne, Postling, Saltwood, Sellindge and Stanford met representatives of Otterpool Park LLP and Folkestone & Hythe District Council leader Cllr Jim Martin at The Jockey Club on the former Folkestone Racecourse.

They were briefed on the latest position with the proposed 8,500-home Otterpool Park development and told further planning material was being submitted.

On 1 October 2026, that substantial new package of documents appeared against planning application Y19/0257/FH.

The papers themselves are dated September 2026, but they form the newly submitted October update to an application first lodged in 2019 and resolved for approval by FHDC’s Planning and Licensing Committee in April 2023.

That permission has still not formally been issued. The council’s new Application Guide says supporting information has had to be updated because planning policy, legislation, environmental guidance and technical evidence have continued to change.

But buried within that planning update is something much more important than refreshed technical reports.

Hillhurst Farm is being positioned as the place where Otterpool finally starts.

The land, owned by Government housing agency Homes England, has been designated the Early Homes Parcel — EHP — capable of delivering up to 300 homes.

The Planning and Delivery Statement gives Homes England’s ownership as the first reason Hillhurst was selected:

“It is in Homes England’s ownership and therefore in a good position to enable the delivery of the first homes for Otterpool Park.”

The EHP money being used to progress this Homes England-owned parcel is Homes England money, not FHDC money.

Hillhurst itself was already within the wider Otterpool site. What has changed is the planning structure surrounding it.

A completely new mechanism called Tier 0 is being introduced specifically to accelerate those first homes.

The Development Specification describes the EHP as sitting:

“outside of the normal tiered system to accelerate the delivery of development at Otterpool Park.”

And elsewhere:

“Tier 0 sits outside of the normal tiered approach to delivery.”

The reason becomes even clearer in the Planning and Delivery Statement.

Under the existing Otterpool structure, Hillhurst would potentially have needed to work through site-wide Tier 1 conditions, Tier 2 Key Phase requirements, Reserved Matters conditions and other parcel-specific requirements before construction began.

The applicant calls that a:

“significant barrier to the early delivery of those homes.”

It therefore proposes carving the Early Homes Parcel out of those site-wide tiered conditions so that it can come forward independently.

The paperwork goes further still.

It says accelerating Hillhurst would be put at risk if the first homes had to wait for completion of the wider Otterpool Section 106 agreement or the practical completion of wider “early infrastructure delivery”.

So Hillhurst is also proposed to have its own standalone Section 106 agreement, separate from the remainder of Otterpool.

That agreement is intended to secure mitigation specifically required for the first 300 homes, together with a proportionate contribution towards wider Garden Town infrastructure.

The published schedule includes a new junction onto the A20 Ashford Road, pedestrian works, bus lay-bys, footway improvements, emergency access from Stone Street, a connection towards Westenhanger Station, education and NHS contributions, open space and drainage requirements.

The transport documents reveal why that new A20 entrance matters.

Under the previous access strategy, getting the first homes underway would effectively have required wider A20 realignment, Newingreen junction improvements and other major Otterpool infrastructure first.

The Early Homes Transport Assessment describes that as a:

“significant infrastructure burden”

on the first homes.

The new arrangement allows Hillhurst to be accessed directly from the A20 before those wider works are completed.

There is, however, another hurdle before construction starts.

The current October submission is not the detailed planning application for the 300 Hillhurst homes.

Otterpool Park LLP’s Application Guide says:

“Detailed proposals for its design and layout will be submitted through a future reserved matters application.”

That separate Reserved Matters application is anticipated in late 2027. It will deal with the detailed layout, home design, materials, landscaping and access.

The guide then places “Construction and community growth” at 2028+, while warning that the programme remains subject to planning approvals and the delivery programme.

So 2028 is an ambition, not yet permission to build.

The housing trajectory nevertheless shows how quickly Otterpool Park LLP expects development to accelerate.

Construction is shown beginning in 2028, followed by 38 completed homes in 2029, 133 in 2030 and 295 in 2031. By the end of 2031 the cumulative figure reaches 466 homes. Housing Trajectory

Hillhurst can provide only up to 300 of those.

That means, if the trajectory is achieved, other parts of Otterpool must also be producing homes by 2031.

The forecast then rises to 395 completions in 2032 and 492 in 2033, reaching 2,086 homes by the end of 2035 and ultimately 8,500 by 2055.

Public transport produces one uncomfortable overlap with that timetable.

The first 300 homes are initially expected to use two new bus stops on the A20 served by the existing 10/10A.

Yet the Transport Strategy says:

“funding for existing service 10/10A, both in amount and even in principle, is not secure beyond March 2029”

— the very year the first homes are forecast to be completed.

Nor has the paperwork identified the housebuilder who will actually construct Hillhurst.

The Early Homes design document talks instead about “future developers” and says accelerating the first homes is critical to:

“securing investment, building confidence in the deliverability of the Garden Town Development and procuring a strategic delivery partner for FHDC to deliver the Vision.”

Affordable housing remains another unanswered issue.

The Development Specification says Otterpool overall will achieve 22% affordable housing, but allows different levels across different parts of the site. It states:

“The S106 legal agreement will secure the level of affordable housing delivered for the EHP”

in agreement with FHDC.

Twenty-two per cent of 300 would mean 66 affordable homes.

The present documents do not guarantee that Hillhurst itself will provide 66.

So the significance of the planning documents submitted on 1 October is not simply that Otterpool Park has been updated to reflect a changed planning landscape.

They show how the project now intends to get moving.

Homes England’s Hillhurst land goes first. It gets a new Tier 0 route, separate conditions, a separate Section 106 and an A20 access designed to avoid waiting for some of the wider Otterpool infrastructure.

But there remains a considerable distance between these plans and houses being built.

Before 2028 can become reality, the outline permission must move forward, the Hillhurst Section 106 and conditions must be settled, and a separate detailed Reserved Matters application — currently expected in late 2027 — must still come before the planning authority.

Only then will we know precisely what is being built, who is building it, how many of the first 300 homes will actually be affordable, and what infrastructure will really be there when Otterpool’s first residents arrive.

The Shepway Vox Team

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