Selling Land in Halton

Halton Borough Council has been a unitary council since 1998 and part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority since 2014, so it decides applications and writes its own plan. The borough is Widnes north of the Mersey, Runcorn south of it, and the parishes of Hale, Halebank, Daresbury, Moore, Preston Brook and Sandymoor, home to 131,543 people in 2024 according to Wikipedia. Clockwise from the west it borders Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens in the city region, then Warrington and Cheshire West and Chester, both on our Cheshire page.

• A third of the borough is Green Belt. The adopted plan puts the Green Belt at about 2,500 hectares, describes its boundary as tightly drawn, and says it contains the smaller settlements of Moore, Daresbury and Preston-on-the-Hill, with Hale Village inset within it.
• An estuary of international importance. The Mersey Estuary is a Special Protection Area, a Ramsar site and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the plan describes it as the feature that "both divides and unites" the two towns.
• A shared housing market. The plan places Halton in a Mid-Mersey housing market area with St Helens and Warrington, and the three agreed that none could take the others' unmet need.

The council's adoption statement records that it adopted the Halton Delivery and Allocations Local Plan 2014 to 2037 in March 2022, replacing most of the 2013 Core Strategy and the saved policies of the 2005 Unitary Development Plan. Policy CS(R)3 provides for at least 8,050 net new homes over the plan period, an average of 350 a year, and asks for at least 30% of them on previously developed land.

That is above the standard method of the time. The inspectors' report of 22 February 2022 records a local housing need of 265 homes a year and accepts an uplift of 85 on top, citing the Liverpool City Region growth deal, the Enterprise Zone at Sci-Tech Daresbury and past delivery that had averaged around 427 homes a year from 2010 to 2019/20. The plan's largest allocations, on both sides of the river, still have most of their homes to come:

The monitoring report shows Mill Green Farm and Lunts Heath Road under construction, and Chapel Lane to Old Upton Lane awaiting a decision on outline application 23/00244/OUT.

Where the Green Belt Line Moved

The inspectors agreed that exceptional circumstances existed to alter the Green Belt in principle, given the need for homes and employment land and too little land outside it, and saw a clear need to keep an adequate supply of housing land north of the river, in Widnes and Hale. The plan also keeps a reserve: policy GB2 safeguards land the inspectors put at 148.4 hectares after their changes, which they equated to about six years' supply of land. It is out of the Green Belt but not allocated, so its time comes through a plan review.

A smaller released site shows the process. Hilltop Farm at Preston-on-the-Hill, 8.2 acres once used as an off-road motorcycle centre, is allocation P1. Place North West reported in August 2026 that it was "now removed from the Green Belt and allocated for housing", and that an outline application for 94 homes, 23 affordable, was going to committee on 10 August 2026 with officers recommending approval.

The plan records that the Silver Jubilee Bridge, opened in 1961 for 60,000 vehicles a day, was carrying over 80,000 every weekday before a second crossing came. The Mersey Gateway Bridge opened on 14 October 2017 as a six lane toll bridge between Runcorn and Widnes, and both bridges are now tolled, though eligible Halton residents who register can cross without limit.

Flood Risk Comes From the Brooks as Much as the Tide

The plan says the estuary and the brooks running into it leave several areas at risk of flooding. The council's local flood risk management strategy of March 2015 is more specific:

• The main source is fluvial flooding from Ditton Brook and its tributaries, and from Keckwick Brook.
• Tidal flooding is known to affect property and roads at Hale Road, Ditton Road, St Michaels Road and Marshgate in Widnes, and at Ramsbrook Lane and Halegate Road in Hale.
• Surface water problems are most significant in the Kingsway and Appleton wards of Widnes.
• Who manages it: the council, as lead local flood authority, manages local flood risk, and the Environment Agency deals with flooding from main rivers.

A site mostly in Flood Zone 1, with the wetter ground kept open, is often workable; how the sequential test treats the remainder is set out in our guide to flood risk.

The key date for Halton land is five years after adoption in March 2022. From then, national policy generally swaps a plan's requirement for the standard method when supply is tested, so the 350 a year behind the council's statement stops being the measure. The 2026 monitoring report gives no current standard method figure, and we would not guess the effect. Meanwhile, since 1 July 2026, decisions carry a 20% buffer where a recent requirement examined under a pre-December 2024 framework is 80% or less of the standard method; for Halton that turns on the current figure.

Building Far Above Every Delivery Threshold

Halton's Housing Delivery Test 2025 score, published on 17 August 2026 and renewed each year, is 170%. That leaves Halton clear of all the test's consequences: an action plan below 95%, a 20% buffer below 85%, and below 75% unmet need treated as evidenced under policy S5.

Sites Gathered in 2025 for a Routine Review

The council's call for sites for the plan review ran until 5 December 2025, and the council described it as part of the routine maintenance of the plan, not a new local plan. Its planning policy page says it is preparing to review the plan but gives no stages or dates. Above the borough, the combined authority is preparing a spatial development strategy for at least the next 15 years, housing included. Its engagement stage ran from November 2023 to February 2024, and the combined authority says it anticipates publishing the next draft for consultation in late 2026.

• Town plots and previously developed land are worth a review today, since the supply figure governs neither.
• Land not put into the 2025 call for sites is best prepared for the review's first draft, since evidence ready before sites are chosen counts most. The stages of a review are described in our landowner's guide to local plans.
• A supply statement with figures, or an appeal that tests the council's claim, could change the grey belt position quickly, and we watch for both.