Redhill Aerodrome has become the latest UK general aviation airfield facing an uncertain future after Tandridge District Council included the Surrey site in its emerging Local Plan as a potential location for major housing development.
The proposal has understandably attracted attention across the GA community. Redhill is a long-established licensed aerodrome with flight training, private flying and commercial aviation activity, as well as a history stretching back to the 1930s.
But an important distinction needs to be made at the outset: Redhill has not been granted planning permission for 2,250 homes, and its closure has not been formally decided.
The aerodrome was included in Tandridge's Regulation 18 Spatial Development Strategy consultation as a potential strategic development site. The council's preferred strategy included around 2,250 homes at Redhill alongside development elsewhere in the district. The consultation ran from 6 July to 2 September 2026 and is now closed.
What Is Being Proposed at Redhill Aerodrome?
Tandridge District Council has been preparing its Local Plan for 2024-2044, which will guide where housing, employment and infrastructure could be provided across the district.
The council consulted on four broad development strategies. Two included development at Redhill Aerodrome, with the council identifying a strategy combining dispersed development with a strategic site at the aerodrome as its preferred approach.
Contemporary council and planning material describes a potential development of around 2,250 homes. The wider concept has also included infrastructure such as schools, community facilities, healthcare provision, employment space and transport improvements.
At this stage, however, the council has stressed that inclusion in the consultation is not the same as a site allocation or a planning application. Further evidence, plan-making stages and ultimately planning permission would be required before housing could actually be built.
The Public Consultation Has Now Closed
Some earlier aviation coverage urged pilots and residents to respond before 2 September. That deadline has now passed.
Tandridge confirms that its summer 2026 Local Plan consultation closed on Wednesday 2 September. The council is now considering the responses as it continues preparing the plan.
Initial reporting from the council's September Planning Policy Committee showed a divided response to the Redhill proposal. Those early figures were expressly preliminary because hundreds of email and paper submissions still had to be analysed. The important point is that the plan remains in development and no final decision on Redhill has yet been made.
Why Redhill Matters to General Aviation
The debate is about more than the loss of another patch of grass.
Redhill Aerodrome's own published history dates operations to 1934, following the site's establishment as an aerodrome in the early 1930s. During the Second World War it became an operational RAF station and hosted aircraft including Spitfires and Hurricanes. Civilian flying returned after the war.
Redhill was the original home of the Tiger Club, while Bristow Helicopters established a major training and maintenance operation there from 1960. Today the aerodrome supports fixed-wing and helicopter activity, flight training, aircraft maintenance, private aircraft and commercial aviation services.
The aerodrome also states that Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance and the National Police Air Service operate from facilities on the site.
Its position close to London and Gatwick makes Redhill particularly relevant to pilots operating in one of the UK's most complex areas of airspace. For the GA community, the concern is therefore not simply about heritage: it is about losing operational aviation infrastructure that is difficult to recreate once developed.
The Planning System Does Recognise the Value of GA Airfields
National planning policy does give general aviation airfields explicit recognition, but that does not amount to an absolute prohibition on redevelopment.
The National Planning Policy Framework requires planning policies to recognise the importance of maintaining a national network of general aviation airfields and their need to adapt and change over time, taking account of their economic value in serving business, leisure, training and emergency-service needs.
That policy is significant when an operational airfield is considered through a Local Plan. It means the aviation role of a site is a relevant planning consideration rather than something that should simply be ignored.
At the same time, local authorities must plan for housing and other development needs and weigh a wide range of evidence and policy considerations. The central planning question is therefore how those competing needs are assessed through the Local Plan process, not whether either housing or aviation automatically overrides the other.
The Hard-Runway Issue Is Part of the Story
Redhill's future has been debated for many years. One recurring issue has been the aerodrome's grass runways and their susceptibility to wet conditions.
FLYER reported in August that previous attempts to secure a hard runway had been refused and that the aerodrome's owners argue aviation activity is no longer commercially viable in its present form. That history adds an important layer to the current debate: the question is not only whether an airfield should be retained, but whether planning decisions allow it to remain operationally and commercially sustainable.
That is a claim and perspective advanced by the aerodrome side of the debate; the current Local Plan process must consider the full planning evidence, including housing, infrastructure, environmental and aviation factors.
Redhill Is Not Just a Historical Site
It is easy for debate around threatened airfields to become dominated by history. Redhill's wartime heritage is substantial, but the stronger present-day question is what capability would be lost if aviation ceased.
Flight training needs accessible airfields. Private and recreational pilots need places to base and operate aircraft. Maintenance organisations need aviation sites from which to work. Emergency-service aviation needs suitable infrastructure. London and the South East already operate within highly constrained airspace and land-use environments.
Once an operational aerodrome is redeveloped for housing, recreating equivalent aviation infrastructure nearby is exceptionally difficult. That long-term consequence is one of the reasons national planning policy explicitly recognises the importance of the GA airfield network.
Why Housing Is Being Considered
The other side of the equation is Tandridge's requirement to plan for substantial housing growth.
The council's consultation explored different ways of distributing development across a district constrained by factors including Green Belt, infrastructure, flood risk and the character of existing settlements. A large strategic development can, in principle, allow housing and supporting infrastructure to be planned together rather than dispersed entirely across smaller sites.
Supporters of the Redhill option have pointed to the potential delivery of a large number of homes and associated infrastructure. Critics have raised concerns including the loss of the aerodrome, Green Belt development, transport and infrastructure pressure, flood risk and the site's relationship with surrounding communities.
Those are precisely the competing issues the Local Plan process is intended to test.
So, Is Redhill Aerodrome Closing?
Not at this point.
Redhill Aerodrome is under genuine development pressure, and a Local Plan strategy that ultimately allocates the site for housing could have profound consequences for its aviation future. But describing the aerodrome as already approved for closure would go beyond the current facts.
The summer 2026 exercise was a Regulation 18 consultation. Tandridge must consider the responses and evidence as it prepares the next stages of the Local Plan. A future plan would also be subject to further statutory process and examination, and any eventual development would require the necessary planning permissions.
A Wider Question for UK General Aviation
Whatever ultimately happens at Redhill, the case highlights a wider challenge for UK general aviation: airfields occupy large areas of land, often close to towns where development pressure is intense, while their wider value can be difficult to replace once lost.
National policy recognises the importance of the GA network. Local planning authorities also face significant housing and infrastructure requirements. Redhill is a clear example of those two pressures meeting on the same site.
For pilots, flying schools, aviation businesses and local communities, the next stage will be worth watching closely. The key question is not simply whether Redhill has a proud past, but what role the aerodrome could continue to play in the UK's aviation network - and how that value is weighed against the case for a major new housing development.
What Happens Next?
Tandridge District Council is analysing the consultation responses and continuing work on the Local Plan. Anyone following Redhill should use the council's Local Plan pages for the latest official documents, committee reports and future consultation stages.
AERLO will continue to follow the future of Redhill Aerodrome and other UK general aviation sites as the planning process develops.
Sources and Further Reading
- Tandridge District Council — Tandridge District Local Plan 2024-2044 and Regulation 18 consultation material
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government — National Planning Policy Framework, current 2026 edition
- Redhill Aerodrome — official history and current aviation activities
- FLYER — Hard runway refusal comes back to haunt Redhill Aerodrome, 18 August 2026
- Pilot — Redhill earmarked for 2,250 homes, 10 September 2026