Selling Land in Wokingham

• Fields and paddocks that adjoin Wokingham, Finchampstead, Spencers Wood, Arborfield, Barkham or Shinfield, outside the Green Belt.
• Land more than 400 metres from the protected heaths, with room for greenspace or a realistic route to strategic SANG.
• Yards, nurseries and previously developed land, including in the Green Belt around Twyford and Wargrave.
• Land on the drier side of the Loddon and its brooks, with a road frontage or a workable access.
• Larger holdings that could feed into the next plan, once the Local Plan Update is in place.

Our review starts with the heath distance, the flood maps and the access, which settle most early questions here. We pay for every survey and report that follows, under an option whose price is fixed at the start, above the land's present value. Farming, grazing or other use goes on meanwhile, and if permission is never secured, the land stays yours and you owe us nothing. How it works sets out each stage.

• 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 latest five-year supply statement, finalised in August 2025 with a base date of 31 March 2025, uses the government's standard method because both the 2010 Core Strategy and the 2014 Managing Development Delivery plan are over five years old. The December 2024 method took the borough's figure from 748 to 1,316 homes a year, a 76% rise:

The gap, roughly 3,450 homes, is about as large as the supply itself. Its make-up is telling: 1,511 of the 3,453 homes are on large sites without full or outline permission that the council judges deliverable, more than the 1,129 on large sites that do have one.

What the Shortfall Does, and Does Not, Do

Under policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, a supply below five years is evidence of unmet need for homes beyond a settlement's edge. It is not a permission in waiting: the land must sit well against the town or village beside it, with roads, schools and drainage able to cope. With the Green Belt confined to the north, S5 reaches most of the borough, from the edges of Wokingham and Finchampstead to the villages around Arborfield and Shinfield. S5 does not apply in the Green Belt around Twyford and Wargrave, but the shortfall still counts there, because grey belt housing is allowed only where need is shown, and a short supply is one of the usual ways of showing it.

This is why, if you want to sell land for development in Wokingham, an edge field outside the Green Belt may be better placed now than once the update is adopted and the yardstick falls.

The Thames Basin Heaths

The council says a small part of the borough lies within 400 metres of the Special Protection Area, where no net new homes are permitted, and its September 2024 topic paper puts the wider zone of influence across the southern half. New homes within 5 kilometres need Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace, or SANG. The growth areas and the garden village provide their own, at 8 hectares per 1,000 new residents. Smaller schemes pay towards the strategic SANG at Rooks Nest Wood in Barkham, between £1,567.98 and £4,240.62 a home within 5 kilometres depending on bedrooms, under guidance last updated in April 2024. The SANG topic paper recorded room there for only around 239 more homes.

A holding large enough to provide its own greenspace does not depend on that capacity, and open land that could serve as SANG has value of its own.

Rivers and Past Floods

The council's 2020 flood risk assessment lists the Thames, the Foudry Brook, the Blackwater, and the Loddon with the Twyford, Emm and Barkham brooks. In July 2007 about 300 properties flooded, 140 inside, and in the winter of 2013 to 2014 Arborfield, Swallowfield, Shinfield, Charvil, Hurst and Wargrave were worst affected. Wet ground rarely rules out a whole holding, but it decides where homes go; our flood risk guide explains the sequential test.

After hearings in November 2025 and from March to June 2026, the inspectors wrote on 4 August 2026 that the plan is likely to be capable of being found sound with main modifications, and that no further housing sites are needed. They asked for the first 25 garden village completions to be pushed back to 2028/29, for the proposed valued landscape designation (policy NE6) to be deleted and for two site allocations to go, one of them for Gypsy and Traveller pitches, because neither site is available. The council says consultation on the modifications will follow later in 2026, then the inspectors' report. Its 2024 Local Development Scheme aimed at adoption in May 2026; we have found no revised date.

A Far Lower Yardstick Once the Update Is Adopted

National policy measures supply against an adopted plan's requirement, turning to the standard method only once that plan is more than five years old. On adoption, the update's 748 a year replaces 1,316. Since 1 July 2026, for decisions only, a 20% buffer applies where a requirement adopted in the last five years was examined against a Framework published before December 2024 and is 80% or less of the standard method figure. On today's numbers the update fits that description, since 748 is well under 80% of 1,316. Five years at 748 plus 20% comes to 4,488 homes before any adjustment for building since 2023, against the 6,909 used now. The new figure is the council's to publish and we do not guess at it, but a case that leans on today's shortfall is stronger decided before adoption than after.

Until then, the figures on the record are these. The most recent supply statement we have found is still the one at 31 March 2025. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, is refreshed annually. At 100%, none of its consequences applies. Below 95% would need an action plan, below 85% would add a 20% buffer, and below 75% would treat unmet need as evidenced under S5 whatever the supply. The lower completions of recent years will feed future results.

Edge Land Now, Larger Holdings for the Next Plan

• Edge-of-settlement land outside the Green Belt is worth looking at now, while the shortfall is the measure.
• Sites inside the towns and previously developed land do not depend on the supply figure and can be reviewed any time.
• Larger holdings are best prepared for the next plan, which would face the far higher standard method figure unless the method changes. How land enters a plan is covered in our guide to putting land forward for a local plan.