Market demand determines Horsham house sales, not imposed local plan target

Letter published by the West Sussex County Times 14 May 2026

Dear Sir,

Horsham District Local Plan: market demand determines house sales, not imposed local-plan targets

The Examination of the Horsham Local Plan 2023/40 restarted on 21 April with hearings held over three days. Matters considered by the examining Inspector included the district’s housing requirement and housing supply.

Horsham District Council (HDC) has advised the Inspector that 17,828 new homes will be required for the life of the plan, comprising 14,071 to meet the district’s housing needs plus 3,752 (50%) of Crawley Borough’s unmet need.

Developers disagree, arguing for much larger numbers, insisting too that HDC accept housing, not just from Crawley, but from other councils as well.

HDC has, however, offered the Inspector additional housing options: 19,300 for Medium Growth and 20,100 for High Growth.

Meanwhile the disputes over the district’s housing numbers ignore the reality that because of rising borrowing and construction costs and skills shortages, rising unemployment and the prevailing political, fiscal and economic uncertainties, delivery of the unsustainably huge housing numbers now in prospect for Horsham District is not assured.

The RICS UK Residential Survey, March 2026, reported that the housing market “is losing momentum as rising borrowing costs and wider geopolitical uncertainty weighed heavily on buyer confidence and sales activity”.

Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, has warned that the war in the Middle East risks triggering a 2008-style financial crisis.

Market demand, buyer confidence, and mortgage rates determine house sales. Developers are competing to sell increasingly expensive-to-build houses in a reducing market, and they will not build more houses than can be sold at an acceptable-to-them profit, regardless of imposed local-plan targets.

Yours faithfully,

Dr R F Smith

Trustee CPRE Sussex