Selling Land 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.

• An outright sale. You sell the land as it stands today, privately or at auction. The price is what a buyer will pay for it without planning permission, and the buyer takes on everything that follows.
• A conditional contract. You agree a sale now, but it only completes if planning permission is granted. Until then you keep the land, and the agreement sets out who applies for permission and who pays.
• An option agreement, the route we use. We agree your price at the start, in writing, set above what your land is worth today. We then pay for and run all of the planning work, at our own cost and risk. If permission is granted, we complete the purchase and you receive the agreed price on completion. If it is not, you keep your land and owe nothing.

For land that needs planning permission before it is worth more, an option means you know your price before any work starts and never spend a penny on planning. The ways to sell land for development, compared sets out each route in full.

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:

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.

So for land beyond a settlement boundary, the realistic route to selling it for development here is usually the new plan, and the evidence that gets a field ready for it is work we pay for under an option.

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:

1. 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.
2. In the Outer Consultation Zone and the 12 kilometre consultation zone, the regulator and AWE are consulted on development proposals.
3. 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.

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:

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. How the stages fit together is explained in our guide to local plan stages and site submissions.

The Buffer to Watch, Thatcham, and a Paused Ridgeway Council

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%, and the test is run again every 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.

Two local processes run in parallel. 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.

Village Land Now, Edge Fields by the May 2027 Consultation

• 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.