Selling Land in Warrington

Grey belt is Green Belt land that does not strongly serve the purposes the Green Belt exists for, or that is previously developed. It matters more in Warrington than in most places, because so much of the borough is Green Belt, and policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, which lets homes cross a settlement boundary once unmet need is evidenced, has no reach into Green Belt land.

Being grey belt is not enough on its own for housing. Homes on grey belt land also need a demonstrable shortage behind them, and the evidence normally relied on is a delivery result under 75% or a supply of less than five years. On the council's published figures, a result of 134% and a supply of 5.13 years, Warrington meets neither today, although the higher buffer described above leaves that open to argument. An email from the council's planning policy and programmes manager in September 2025, quoted by Warrington Worldwide in December 2025, said any application on Green Belt land will need to show very special circumstances. The report concerned an application for 55 homes off Rushgreen Road in Lymm. The council's planning register shows that outline application, 2025/01668/OUTM for up to 55 homes by Nightingale Land, still pending consideration in late September 2026: a committee date of 16 July 2026 had been proposed, and the deadline for the council's decision had been extended to 12 October 2026.

Others are testing the point regardless. Place North West reported in June 2026 that Peel Land had lodged plans, then awaiting validation, for 200 homes, 90 of them affordable, on 20 acres at Turret Hall Farm in Croft, one of three Green Belt sites in Croft, Hollins Green and Lymm that it says meet the grey belt criteria and that could together hold 460 homes.

Four Things That Set the Grey Belt Position Here

1. The need test hangs on the next statement. A statement under five years, or a delivery result under 75%, would supply the evidence of need, with nothing else about the field changing.
2. The plan left no safeguarded land. The inspectors' report of October 2023 found no need to set land aside for after the plan period, pointing to the south east urban extension for growth beyond it. So there is no reserve of land already out of the Green Belt waiting for its turn.
3. The council is mapping grey belt now. Its April 2026 scoping document says it is carrying out a full update of its Green Belt Assessment, with government funding, and that this will also identify grey belt land. That assessment will be the council's own view, field by field.
4. Policy GB1 aims to hold the line to 2050. The adopted plan says the council will keep the general extent of the Green Belt to at least 2050, though the new plan is where that promise will be tested against a higher housing figure.

Some routes do not wait on the numbers at all. Inside the town and the nine inset villages, GB1 allows new building, conversions and redevelopment that meet national and local policy, and national policy S4 starts from support, so a scheme there is turned down only where its harm would be substantially greater than its benefits. In the twelve washed-over villages, GB1 allows limited infill of a suitable scale unless the gap itself adds to the village's character. Yards and other previously developed land have their own tests in Green Belt policy too, which our page on brownfield and yards covers. A larger grey belt scheme then has to satisfy the Golden Rules, with a higher affordable share, new infrastructure and accessible green space, all set out in our grey belt guide.

Warrington is not waiting for its plan to age. The council gave notice on 16 April 2026 that it was starting an update under the government's new 30-month plan-making system, and ran a scoping consultation and call for sites from 16 April to 1 June 2026. Its project initiation document, published in September 2026, puts local housing need under the revised standard method at 1,073 homes a year, against the plan's average of 816.

Two figures are in circulation. The April 2026 scoping document gave 1,067 homes a year; the September document gives 1,073. The standard method is recalculated as new household and affordability data are released, which is the most likely reason for the difference. Either way, the next plan has to find room for roughly 250 more homes a year than the current plan's average.

The same document is clear about when the higher figure starts to bite. It says the transitional rules protect the plan's requirement for five years from adoption, subject to the council keeping a five-year supply. In other words, the December 2028 date holds only while the supply holds. Policy DEV1 itself commits the council to consider a review if monitoring shows the five years can no longer be sustained.

Neighbourhood Plans in the Villages

Appleton Thorn has had a neighbourhood plan since June 2017. Lymm and Grappenhall and Thelwall have both reached the stage of a six-week publicity period, which ran from 21 July to 1 September 2026, on the way to examination. Once made, their policies carry weight on where new homes go in those parishes, so a site's fit with them is worth checking early.

Plan Content and Evidence, 17 November 2026 to 4 January 2027

The council's local plan timetable, updated in September 2026 after it published its Gateway 1 self-assessment, sets out the stages ahead:

That consultation is likely to be the first chance to see how the council is thinking about where the higher figure goes, and it may show early findings from the Green Belt Assessment. The proposed plan in October 2027 is where specific sites would normally be put forward for allocation.

The Next Supply Statement

The next statement, to a base date of 1 April 2026, will be the first to use 870 homes a year throughout, with the 20% buffer. We will not guess its result. The council's own forecast for that period cleared five years by six homes; a result below five would change the grey belt position described above and bring the plan's review commitment into play.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 134%, Warrington faces none of the test's consequences. Lower completions in 2024/25 will feed into later results, but a fall below 95% would be needed before an action plan was required.

A Mayor and a Strategy for Cheshire and Warrington

The scoping document notes that Warrington is now part of the Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority, with a mayoral election due in May 2027, and that the combined authority will prepare a spatial development strategy for the sub-region. Government guidance quoted in the project document says such strategies should not hold up local plans.

What This Means for Timing

• Sites inside the town and inset villages, infill in washed-over villages and previously developed land can be looked at now, as none depends on the supply figure.
• Open Green Belt land is best prepared for the November 2026 consultation and the proposed plan in October 2027, while the council is still forming its view on grey belt.
• A change in the supply position would alter this advice quickly, and we watch each statement for exactly that reason.