Cambridgeshire council area

Selling Land in Fenland

Fenland still works to a Local Plan adopted in May 2014, and it has started afresh on the plan that will replace it, Fenland 50. Three of its four market towns stand on islands of higher ground, with much of the farmland around them in Flood Zone 3, so how a field sits above the fen matters as much here as the housing numbers.

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Fen Islands, a Tidal River and Four Market Towns

Fenland District Council is based at Fenland Hall in March and covers about 546 square kilometres of the Cambridgeshire fens, home to around 104,900 people in 2024. Wisbech is the largest of its four towns, with March, Chatteris and Whittlesey, and villages such as Doddington, Wimblington, Manea, Elm and Parson Drove sit between them.

Towns on the high points. The council's Strategic Flood Risk Assessment of June 2022 describes March, Whittlesey and Chatteris as sitting on islands of high ground above lower land, with much of the district in Flood Zone 3.
Drained land. The same assessment records pumped drainage across most of the district, with the North Level and King's Lynn internal drainage boards and the Middle Level Commissioners managing water levels in the low-lying areas.
Two great rivers. The Nene and the Great Ouse, or Bedford River, are the largest watercourses, and the Nene is tidal as far as the Dog in a Doublet sluice north of Whittlesey. In 1978 a tide near the 1 in 200 year level overtopped the defences at Wisbech.
Delivery ahead of need. The council built 1,865 homes against a requirement of 1,591 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 117%.
A strong recent year. Its monitoring report for 2024/25 counts 664 net completions, the second highest since 2008, including 137 affordable homes, the most since 2015.

With the district building well, the brake on a given site is rarely the housing numbers. It is where the land sits against the fen, the rivers and the settlement order in the plan.

Fenland in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, its latest five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
117%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
6.6 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 28 February 2025, measured against local housing need under the December 2024 standard method, 593 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer, for the five years from 1 April 2025. Stated by Fenland District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,865
of 1,591 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
May 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Fenland 50 plan under the new system: initial proposals consultation February to March 2027, adoption planned October 2028
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.

The 2014 Plan and Its Four Towns

The Fenland Local Plan was adopted on 8 May 2014 and runs to 2031. Policy LP4 plans for 11,000 homes between 2011 and 2031 and shares them out as follows:

Source: Fenland Local Plan, May 2014, policy LP4.
Place	Homes planned 2011 to 2031
March	4,200, including about 2,000 at West March and 600 south east of the town
Wisbech	3,000, including about 900 at East Wisbech and 750 at West Wisbech, with a further 550 planned just over the boundary in King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Chatteris	1,600
Whittlesey	1,000
Elsewhere	1,200

Policy LP3 sets out the settlement order that decides what each place can take. March and Wisbech are the primary market towns and Chatteris and Whittlesey the other two. Wimblington, Doddington, Manea and Wisbech St Mary are growth villages, where the plan accepts development inside the built-up area or as small village extensions. Coates, Elm, Friday Bridge, Leverington and Parson Drove are limited growth villages. Below them, small villages take development of a very limited nature, and the smallest places only single homes filling a gap in an otherwise built-up frontage.

Because the plan is more than five years old, its 11,000 figure no longer sets the yardstick for housing supply. The government's standard method does, as the next section shows.

Supply Counted Against 593 Homes a Year

The council's five-year housing land supply report, published in June 2025, calculates the position on 28 February 2025 for the five years from April 2025 and finds 6.6 years. It measures against local housing need under the December 2024 standard method, which rose to 593 homes a year from 509 in the previous calculation:

Source: Fenland District Council, Five Year Housing Land Supply Report, June 2025, tables 2 and 4.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Local housing need	593 homes a year
Five years of need	2,965 homes
Buffer	5%, or 30 homes a year, as the council passed the delivery test
Requirement with buffer	623 homes a year, 3,115 over five years
Deliverable supply	4,112 homes
Result	6.6 years

Of that supply, 2,169 homes are on sites of five or more with permission, 403 on smaller sites, 578 on strategic allocations and broad locations, and 460 on schemes approved subject to a legal agreement. A windfall allowance adds 527 and older people's housing 53, and the council then takes off 78 homes on redevelopment sites, which brings 4,190 down to 4,112.

Where the Homes Are Coming From

Chatteris. A site for 1,000 homes, with 125 counted in the five years and reserved matters for 245 homes in its first phases then awaiting a decision.
March. Land south of Upwell Road for 110 homes and land west of Princess Avenue for 125.
Whittlesey. Land north of Gildenburgh Water for 203 homes, and phase 4 at Bassenhally Farm for 130.
Around Wisbech. Land east of Sutton Road, Leverington, for 221 homes, and east of Old Lynn Road for 121.

What a Supply Above Five Years Means for Your Land

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework supports homes outside settlement limits where unmet need is evidenced, provided the site is well related to the town or village and its infrastructure has capacity. A result below 75% means need is treated as evidenced, and a supply shortfall is evidence to be weighed. Fenland's figures, a delivery result of 117% and more than five years of supply, offer neither today, so a speculative application on open land beyond the towns would struggle. The 2014 plan still gives the growth villages room for small extensions, and plots inside the towns and villages are judged under policy S4, which allows refusal only where the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

Flood Risk, Judged Settlement by Settlement

The June 2022 assessment warns that much of Fenland lies below the arterial drainage channels around it, leaving significant residual risk if defences were breached or overtopped. New homes outside Flood Zone 1 generally have to pass the sequential test, which asks whether reasonably available land at lower risk could take the homes instead.

How wide that search runs makes all the difference in the Fens. The council's guidance note on flood risk, issued in June 2015 to go with policy LP14, says that unless a proposal has strategic implications, such as a school catchment, it will consider flood risk in the context of the settlement where the site lies. A field in Flood Zone 3 on the edge of Manea is therefore compared with other land around Manea, not with the whole district. Where the exception test also applies, both of its parts must be met, the first being wider benefits to the community that outweigh the flood risk.

Which flood zone each part of the field is in, and whether the homes can sit on the higher part.
Which settlement the site relates to, and what lower risk land around that settlement is realistically available.
The internal drainage board for the area and how surface water would reach its system.
For land near Wisbech, the tidal Nene as well as the fen drainage.

Our guide to flood risk and development land explains both tests in more depth.

What the Plan Asks New Homes to Give Back

Policy LP5 asks for 20% affordable housing on sites of five to nine homes and 25% on sites of ten or more. Alongside it come drainage works, which in a pumped landscape can be a real cost, contributions to schools and roads, and the national 10% biodiversity net gain. Each of these comes out of the value of a scheme, so they are costed at the start rather than discovered later. Our guide to section 106 and CIL explains how the contributions are worked out.

None of it falls on you. Under our option agreement we pay for the surveys, the flood and drainage work and the application, and the agreed price already takes these obligations into account.

The Land We Look for in Fenland

Fields of 2 acres or more on the edges of Wisbech, March, Chatteris or Whittlesey, particularly on the higher ground.
Land beside Doddington, Wimblington, Manea or Wisbech St Mary that could form a small village extension.
Plots, gardens and yards inside the towns and villages.
Former farmyards, packhouses and commercial sites next to a settlement.
Larger holdings that could be put forward for Fenland 50.

Our page on farmland explains how we look at agricultural land. The price is settled when the option is signed, set higher than the land's value as farmland, and the planning is ours to fund and to risk. Farming carries on as normal until completion, and should permission not come, the land stays yours with nothing to repay.

Fenland 50 and the Road to October 2028

A Fresh Start on the New Plan

On 15 December 2025 the full council withdrew its previous draft plan, which ran from 2019 to 2040, citing changes to the national planning system. It published a notice to commence Fenland 50 in January 2026, reissued in March, to guide growth up to 2050 under the new 30-month process. The council's published timetable sets out what comes next:

Source: Fenland 50 Local Plan timetable, updated in September 2026 with no substantive changes. The council may revise these dates.
Stage	Council's timetable
Gateway 1 self-assessment published	27 July 2026
Initial proposals consultation	February to March 2027
Gateway 2, preferred strategy and policies	April 2027
Publication draft consultation	October to December 2027
Gateway 3, submission readiness	January 2028
Submission and examination	March 2028
Adoption	October 2028

The call for sites ran from 5 March to 31 May 2026 and has closed, and the council says there may be further chances to submit sites at later stages, which it will advertise on its Fenland 50 pages. Its Gateway 1 summary lists flood risk, drainage and water resources among the evidence to be updated. The initial proposals in early 2027 are likely to give landowners their first sight of the direction the council favours.

Supply and the Delivery Test

National policy asks for the supply to be updated each year, yet the council's latest monitoring report, published in February 2026, still relies on the June 2025 figure, and no newer statement has appeared. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, with a new edition each year. At 117%, Fenland is clear of every sanction. The first, an action plan, arrives only below 95%; a buffer of 20% on the supply sums follows below 85%; and below 75% the council would be treated as having unmet need for policy S5.

Reorganisation, Paused

Reorganisation is on hold here too. The national review announced on 7 September 2026 paused the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough proposals, and elections in May 2027 will use the current council areas. For now, Fenland District Council remains the body preparing Fenland 50.

What This Means for Timing

Land that missed the call for sites is best prepared now, with flood and access evidence ready for the initial proposals in early 2027.
Plots in the towns, growth village edges and previously developed sites can be looked at now, without waiting for the new plan.
Larger holdings have the most to gain from a well evidenced case put to the council before the preferred strategy is fixed.

Questions About Land in Fenland

I missed the Fenland 50 call for sites. Is it too late?

Not necessarily. The council says sites may be invited again at later stages, and land can still be argued at the consultation stages. A site with its evidence ready is in a much better position when those come round.

Most of my farm is in Flood Zone 3. Is it worth asking?

Often, yes. In Fenland the sequential test is usually applied around the settlement your land adjoins, so a Flood Zone 3 field can still be the best option for that town or village. We check the zones and the drainage before giving a view.

My land adjoins Doddington. What can the current plan allow?

Doddington is a growth village, where the 2014 plan accepts small village extensions as well as building inside the village. Scale, access and flood risk decide how much a particular field could take.

Does Wisbech face different issues from March or Chatteris?

Yes. Wisbech lies on the tidal Nene, so tidal as well as fen flood risk comes into play, and part of its growth was planned across the boundary in Norfolk. March and Chatteris sit on higher ground, which tends to make edge-of-town land easier to assess.

Would a new unitary council change what happens to my land?

Not for now. The proposals for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are paused, and Fenland District Council continues to decide applications and prepare Fenland 50.

Tell Us About Your Land in Fenland

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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.