Berkshire council area

Selling Land in West Berkshire

West Berkshire adopted its Local Plan Review in June 2025 and gave notice of a replacement barely a year later. With 5.7 years of housing land and about three quarters of the district in the North Wessex Downs, the real question for most land here is which stage of that new plan it should be ready for.

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Newbury, Thatcham, the Downs and Reading's Western Edge

West Berkshire runs from Hungerford in the west to the edge of Reading in the east, with Newbury as its administrative centre. The adopted plan divides it into three areas:

Newbury and Thatcham. The two main towns, where the plan places its big urban extensions, at Sandleford Park south of Newbury and on the north east side of Thatcham.
The Eastern Area. Tilehurst, Calcot and Purley on Thames, which the plan describes as having "a close functional relationship with Reading", with Theale a focus for more homes through commitments and allocated sites.
The North Wessex Downs. About 74% of the district lies within the National Landscape, where the plan looks for growth that conserves and enhances its landscape.

Below the three urban areas come six rural service centres, Burghfield Common, Hungerford, Lambourn, Mortimer, Pangbourne and Theale, then eight service villages, among them Chieveley, Hermitage and Kintbury. Outside settlement boundaries, land is treated as open countryside "where development will be more restricted".

The council also sets the emergency planning zones around the Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield, and it has built well: the Housing Delivery Test 2025 records 1,742 homes against 1,523 needed, a result of 114%.

West Berkshire in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
114%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Homes built against homes needed
1,742
of 1,523 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
June 2025
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Updated
New Local Plan started June 2026; timetable aims for adoption in April 2029
Checked source

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

5.7 Years of Land, Measured Before the New Buffer Rule

The council's latest housing land supply statement, published in February 2026 with a base date of 31 March 2025, finds 5.7 years for the period to March 2030. Its calculation runs as follows:

Source: West Berkshire Council, Housing Land Supply Statement (February 2026). We have grouped the supply rows from the council's table.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement	515 homes, the average in policy SP12 of the adopted plan
Five years at that rate	2,575 homes
Allowance for building ahead of target	Early over-delivery spread across the rest of the plan period, bringing the figure to 2,530
Buffer	5%, or 127 homes
Five-year requirement with buffer	2,657 homes
Allocated sites, old and new	1,366 homes
Unallocated sites with permission or prior approval	1,124 homes
Small windfall sites	379 homes
Communal accommodation	176 homes
Deliverable supply	3,045 homes
Result	5.7 years

Supply less requirement leaves a margin of 388 homes. The 515 figure is the government's standard method result when the plan was submitted in March 2023, which the inspector made the basis of the requirement for 2023 to 2041, at least 9,270 homes. It is not what the formula gives now. The February 2026 statement says the current method would "effectively double" the need, to 1,067 homes a year. In evidence to a 2025 appeal on the Kennet Centre in Newbury, the council's planning policy witness put the December 2024 figure at 1,070, up from 495, and reported a supply of 2.6 years before the plan was adopted. The gap most likely reflects newer data; either way, 515 is under half.

The Buffer Rule That Began on 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026 a further rule has applied to decisions: the buffer becomes 20% when a council's requirement, adopted within five years under an older version of national policy, sits at or below 80% of today's standard method number. The August 2026 framework keeps this route. West Berkshire appears to meet each condition, as the inspector examined its plan against the 2021 framework. The February 2026 statement quotes the rule but, published before it took effect, applies 5%.

On our own arithmetic from the council's figures, not a council finding, 20% on the adjusted 2,530 homes gives 3,036, so the same 3,045 homes would cover just over five years, a margin of about nine homes rather than 388. That assumes every other input stands, including the credit for early over-delivery, and the next statement will count a fresh year of sites. It shows a thin cushion, not a forecast.

What That Means for a Field

On the published figures, with delivery at 114% and supply above five years, the usual evidence of unmet need is absent. The national framework's policy S5 backs homes past a settlement's edge only where need is shown, the land relates well to the settlement and infrastructure can cope, so most fields outside a boundary are candidates for the new plan rather than an application. A supply found below five years, in a new statement or at appeal, would change that, as the shortfall counts as evidence of need. Plots within the boundaries are judged differently, as policy S4 favours homes inside a settlement unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits, whatever the supply.

Where the 2025 Plan Puts Its Homes

The inspector, William Fieldhouse, reported on 8 April 2025 that the plan was sound with main modifications, and it was adopted on 10 June 2025.

Sandleford Park

Sandleford Park, south of Newbury, is described in the plan as a new residential neighbourhood with facilities and green infrastructure. The eastern part was allowed on appeal in May 2022, and Sandleford Park West adds 360 more homes.

North East Thatcham

Policy SP14 allocates about 2,500 homes north east of Thatcham, of which around 1,760 are expected by March 2041. The inspector raised the figure from the 1,500 first proposed. The council says roughly half of the site will be green infrastructure and a new community park, with a primary school and a healthcare facility.

Aldermaston, Burghfield and the Emergency Zones

On 12 March 2020 the council widened the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone around AWE Burghfield, raising its minimum radius from 1,600 to 3,160 metres. Three developers, Crest Nicholson, Hallam Land Management and Wilson Enterprises, challenged the decision in the High Court and lost in 2021. The wider zone covers much of the 700 hectares they owned, land that had been earmarked for 15,000 homes.

Policy SP4 of the adopted plan sets out what the zones mean for a planning application:

Inside the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone, development "is likely to be refused planning permission where the ONR", the Office for Nuclear Regulation, advises against it.
In the Outer Consultation Zone and the 12 kilometre consultation zone, the regulator and AWE are consulted on development proposals.
Beyond the zones, no AWE consultation arises, and the site is judged on the plan's other policies.

Near Burghfield Common, Mortimer or Aldermaston, we check the zone map first.

The Downs, the Lambourn and the Price of Phosphates

A National Landscape Across Most of the District

National policy gives great weight to conserving the scenic beauty of a National Landscape and allows major development inside one only in exceptional circumstances. The plan steers its large growth to Newbury, Thatcham and the Eastern Area, in line with its aim to direct development to areas of lower environmental value.

Nutrient Neutrality in Two Catchments

The River Lambourn and the River Test are, in the council's words, "in unfavourable condition as a result of excess phosphates". New homes in either catchment must show how their waste water and surface water will be dealt with, including which Thames Water treatment works they will connect to. The council's response includes a phosphate budget calculator for the Lambourn, published in August 2024, and £2.43 million from the government's Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund, which it expects to lift barriers to housing in that catchment.

Mitigation is a cost a scheme carries alongside the obligations in our guide to section 106 and CIL; we build it in from day one, and you pay none of it.

The Land We Look for in West Berkshire

Plots, yards and larger gardens inside the settlement boundaries of Newbury, Thatcham and the Eastern Area.
Fields that adjoin a rural service centre or service village and sit outside the emergency planning zones.
Land around Newbury, Thatcham and Theale that could be ready for the new plan's content and evidence stage in 2027.
Farmland of 20 acres or more with a road frontage, where the new plan may need larger sites.
Small sites next to villages in the Downs that could suit affordable homes for local people.

For land that belongs in the new plan, the work on access, drainage, ecology, landscape and phosphates starts well before any consultation. We pay for all of it under an option at a price fixed at the outset, above the land's current value, and you keep farming the land throughout. See farmland and how it works for the detail.

Gateway 1 in October, and the Road to 2029

A New Plan, a Year After the Last

At an extraordinary Executive meeting, Councillor Gaines noted that, despite adopting a plan in June 2025, the council "now had no choice but to begin preparing a new one", with its notice of intention due by 30 June 2026. It did so on 25 June 2026, and the timetable it published that day runs as follows:

From the West Berkshire Local Plan timetable, in effect from 25 June 2026. Dates are the council's and may move.
Stage	Council's date
Scoping consultation	24 July to 4 September 2026
Gateway 1 self-assessment	30 October 2026
Content and evidence consultation	28 May to 9 July 2027
Gateway 2	29 October 2027
Proposed plan consultation	5 June to 31 July 2028
Gateway 3	15 September 2028
Submission for examination	27 October 2028
Adoption	30 April 2029

We have not found a call for sites on the council's pages yet. By the May 2027 consultation, a site's access, landscape and drainage work is best in hand. Our guide to call for sites and local plans explains how the stages fit together.

Supply and the Delivery Test

The February 2026 statement gives no date for its successor. The next one will still measure supply against 515 a year, and whether it applies the 20% buffer is the single most important thing to watch. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, puts the council at 114%; a new edition follows each year. None of the test's own consequences applies at that level: below 95% brings an action plan, below 85% a 20% buffer, and below 75% unmet need treated as proven. We do not predict the result.

Thatcham's Masterplan and Ridgeway Council

The North East Thatcham masterplan, after engagement in spring 2026, is due for draft consultation towards the end of 2026 and adoption in spring or summer 2027. In July 2026 the government confirmed a new Ridgeway Council to take over from West Berkshire Council and most of two Oxfordshire districts, South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse, on 1 April 2028. That programme is now paused for a national review, with May 2027 elections on existing boundaries. The Executive had already been told the government advised against delaying the plan because of reorganisation.

What This Means for Timing

Land inside a settlement boundary can be looked at now under policy S4.
Edge-of-settlement fields are best prepared for the 2027 consultation, and ready for an application if the next supply statement falls short.
Land in the Downs or near the zones needs constraints settled first.

Questions About Land in West Berkshire

The council only adopted its plan in 2025. Why is it starting another, and should I wait?

The council's Executive heard that, despite the 2025 plan, it had no choice but to begin a new one. Waiting is rarely wise: sites do best when their evidence is ready for the 2027 consultation.

The council has 5.7 years of supply. Can I still apply on a field outside a village?

Rarely with success while the published figure stands above five years, though on our arithmetic the margin all but disappears if the 20% buffer rule is applied. Until the council publishes a new position, most such fields are better put forward for the new plan. Rural exception sites for affordable homes follow different rules.

My land is near Burghfield Common. How do the AWE zones affect it?

It depends which zone it is in. Inside the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone, new homes are likely to be refused if the nuclear regulator advises against them. In the outer zones the regulator and AWE are consulted. We check this before anything else.

I farm near Lambourn. Does the phosphate problem stop all new homes there?

No, but it adds a step. A scheme in the Lambourn catchment has to show its waste water will not add to the river's phosphate load, using the council's calculator and a mitigation solution. The cost is one we carry.

Does North East Thatcham make other land near Thatcham harder to bring forward?

It is the adopted plan's main answer for Thatcham, with about 1,760 homes expected by 2041, so further land there will be weighed against it in the new plan, on its own evidence.

Tell Us About Your Land in West Berkshire

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.