Derbyshire council area

Selling Land in Derby

Checked on 30 September 2026

Derby has not been able to fit its own housing need inside the city boundary since before its Core Strategy was adopted in January 2017, and much of its growth has been planned just across the line in South Derbyshire and Amber Valley. Delivery came to 71% in the latest Housing Delivery Test, low enough for national policy to treat the need for homes here as evidenced, and the council's own statement shows 2.39 years of housing land. A replacement plan for at least 12,500 homes to 2043 has been through its final round of consultation.

Free review of your land in Derby or call 07958 351879

We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
Your price is agreed up front, in writing
If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing

In short

We buy land in Derby and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

Derby built only 71% of the homes it needed in the government's latest count, and below 75% national policy treats the need for more homes as shown. It can also show only 2.39 years of the five years of housing land national policy expects. So a well placed field next to a town or village can make its case now, not only through the local plan, though each site is judged on its merits. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from January 2017, and a new one was published for consultation in July 2026.

We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.

The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.

Derby 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
71%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Five-year housing land supply
2.39 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the standard method, 960 homes a year, plus a 20% buffer. Stated by Derby City Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
2,661
of 3,765 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
January 2017
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
Core Strategy (Local Plan Part 1) adopted 25 January 2017; the draft Local Plan for Derby 2023 to 2043 was consulted on from 12 January to 9 March 2026 and the Regulation 19 version from July 2026; the council intends to submit by the end of 2026
Checked source

See how Derby compares with the other 166 councils we cover

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 Land We Look for in Derby

Yards, depots, workshops and former commercial land anywhere in the city, the Green Belt included.
Large gardens, backland and small plots in the suburbs, from Allestree to Chellaston.
Fields on the western and southern edges near Mickleover, Littleover and Sinfin that are not Green Belt.
Green Belt land on the northern and eastern edges already contained by housing, roads or the A52.
Green Wedge land beside existing homes with a safe way in from a road.
Land just beyond the boundary that would read as an extension of the city.

In Derby the line between Green Belt, Green Wedge and ordinary edge land decides the whole case, so every site starts with its planning record. If a site suits us, the surveys, the application and any appeal are ours to fund. We agree the option price at the outset, pitched above what the land fetches in its present use. Until completion you go on farming, letting or using it, and if consent is refused, nothing is owed and the land remains in your hands. Each stage is laid out on our how it works page.

The planning detail in full

Rolls-Royce, the Derwent and a Tightly Drawn City Boundary

Derby City Council is a unitary authority: it decides every planning application in the city and writes its own local plan. The city covers about 78 square kilometres, with the River Derwent running through it from the north and round the north-east side of the centre, and had 261,364 residents at the 2021 census. Around the centre sits a ring of suburbs: Allestree, Darley Abbey and Oakwood to the north, Chaddesden and Spondon to the east, Alvaston, Boulton, Chellaston and Sinfin to the south, and Littleover and Mickleover to the west.

An engineering city. Rolls-Royce is based here, Alstom builds trains at Litchurch Lane, and Derby station is on the Midland Main Line.
Green Belt on two sides. The Core Strategy describes a substantial Green Belt along the northern, eastern and south-eastern fringes, there mainly to keep Derby apart from Nottingham and the towns along the A52.
Green Wedges inside the city. Fingers of open land between the suburbs, protected by a local policy rather than Green Belt.
Three neighbours. Amber Valley, Erewash and South Derbyshire surround the city.

The city cannot fit all of its own need for homes inside that boundary, so the questions for land here are the supply, the Green Belt review and how the need is shared with the neighbours.

2,754 Deliverable Homes Against 5,760 Needed

The council's 2026 five-year housing supply position, published in July 2026 with a base date of 1 April 2026, finds 2.39 years. With the adopted plan's housing figure out of date, it measures the city against the government's standard method, now 960 homes a year:

Source: Derby City Council, 2026 five year housing supply position, July 2026.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Five years at 960 a year	4,800 homes
Buffer	20%, adding 960 homes
Five-year requirement with buffer	5,760 homes
Major sites with permission	2,434 homes
Small sites with permission (1 to 9 homes)	320 homes
Deliverable supply	2,754 homes
Result	2.39 years

On our sum, that leaves the city 3,006 homes short of its buffered requirement, and even with no buffer the supply would not reach 4,800. Only sites with planning permission are counted: the statement's rows for major sites without permission are both nil, and it has no windfall row.

A Buffer Set by an Older Test

The statement applies a 20% buffer because Derby's result in the December 2024 edition of the delivery test was 83%, short of 85%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, issued on 17 August 2026 after the statement, puts the city lower, at 71%: 2,661 homes built against 3,765 required over April 2022 to March 2025. The buffer stays.

The supply has been falling. At the Royal Hill Road appeal in May 2025 the inspector recorded 3.85 years against 906 homes a year; since then the yearly figure has risen to 960 and the council's count has dropped to the 2.39 years above. Building itself has not stopped: the council's monitoring report for 2024/25 records 1,345 net new homes in 2023/24, helped by office conversions and student housing in the centre, and 806 in 2024/25. What is thin is the pipeline of permissions behind them.

A Core Strategy That Found Room for 11,000 of 16,388 Homes

The adopted Core Strategy runs from 2011 to 2028. Its evidence put the city's need at 16,388 homes at least, but found room for only around 11,000 in sustainable locations. Policy CP6 plans for a minimum of 11,000, or 647 a year, and commits the council to work with South Derbyshire and Amber Valley on urban extensions beyond the boundary, mainly in South Derbyshire. One of them straddles the line: Heatherton in the city with Highfields Farm, around 2,100 homes in all, west of Derby.

Two choices in that plan still shape land today. It kept the Green Belt as it was, recording joint work, Erewash included, which found that the Green Belt on the edge of Derby still served its purpose and should be released only as a very last resort. And it left 851 of its homes to a Part 2 plan, which, as the Royal Hill Road inspector noted, was never progressed.

The plan is now 9 years old. The council says it found the requirement out of date in December 2021, after the government added a 35% uplift for the 20 largest urban areas; that uplift has gone, but national policy replaces the requirement of any plan over five years old with the standard method in any case.

18,340 Homes Needed, 12,500 Planned Inside the City

The new plan meets the old problem on a larger scale. The Derby housing market area statement of common ground, prepared by Amber Valley, Derby City, South Derbyshire and Derbyshire County councils, sets out the sum:

Source: Derby Housing Market Area Statement of Common Ground, February 2026.
Figure	Joint statement
Derby's need, December 2024 standard method with May 2025 inputs	917 homes a year
Need over 2023 to 2043	18,340 homes
Capacity identified inside the city	12,500 homes
Unmet need	5,840 homes
In South Derbyshire's plan, towards the area's unmet need	4,867 homes
In Amber Valley's plan, towards the same	1,320 homes

On our sum the two neighbours' figures come to 6,187 homes, more than the 5,840 shortfall; the statement presents each as a contribution towards the area's unmet need rather than an exact split of it. The councils record that enough committed and proposed sites lie in broad locations on the edge of the city for Derby's unmet needs to be met in full. Each still keeps its own five-year supply, counted inside its own boundary, which is why Derby's position looks so unlike its neighbours'.

The Regulation 19 plan, the Local Plan for Derby 2023 to 2043, plans for a minimum of 12,500 homes under policy H1 and treats the Derby Urban Area as the city plus its planned extensions in South Derbyshire and Amber Valley. Its approach is "brownfield, and City Centre first". Its housing sites include Rykneld Road and East of Moorway Lane in Littleover, Brook Farm in Chaddesden, The Hollow in Mickleover and North of Sinfin Moor Lane, plus two in Spondon covered below.

The need has kept moving while the plan was written: on our arithmetic, 960 a year over the same twenty years is 19,200 homes, about 860 more than the joint statement allowed for. We do not predict how the examination treats that.

Grey Belt West of Spondon, and a Green Wedge Lost at Appeal

The Derby Green Belt Assessment, carried out by LUC for the council in September 2025, split the city's Green Belt, to the north and east, into 15 parcels of 1.21 to 39.46 hectares and tested three sites put forward to the council:

Source: LUC for Derby City Council, Derby Green Belt Assessment, September 2025.
Land assessed	Finding
Parcels DY9 and DY10, west of Spondon	Only moderate against checking urban sprawl; together 11% of the city's Green Belt
Parcel DY11, directly south of DY10	Strongly supports that purpose
Stoney Lane, Spondon (within DY10)	Grey belt
Asterdale Leisure Centre	Grey belt, about 0.6 hectares
Land at Locko Road	A strong contribution to checking sprawl, so not grey belt in the assessment's view

The assessment says grey belt, and previously developed land above all, should come first. Stoney Lane is carried into the Regulation 19 plan as policy HA7.

The Need Test Is Met Today

Away from the plan, homes on grey belt need evidenced need, usually a supply under five years or a delivery result below 75%. Derby shows both. Larger schemes must also meet the Golden Rules on affordable homes, infrastructure and public green space. The hard part is the grey belt judgement itself: a parcel that holds back the spread of Derby's built-up area is likely to be found to contribute strongly to checking sprawl, as Locko Road and DY11 were. The grey belt guide explains each purpose.

Royal Hill Road

Green Wedges are a local designation, and grey belt rules do not touch them. At Royal Hill Road an outline scheme for up to 90 homes in the Spondon and Chaddesden Green Wedge went to appeal, and inspector Andrew Smith allowed it on 16 May 2025. Both sides agreed the council could not show a five-year supply, so the policies most important to the decision, the wedge policy CP18 and the housing policy CP6, were deemed out of date and the presumption in favour of sustainable development applied. He found moderate harm to the wedge but gave very significant weight to the homes and to 30% affordable housing. Royal Hill Road, Spondon, now appears among the Regulation 19 plan's housing sites as policy HA4.

Five Routes for Land in a Mostly Built-Up City

Here the route matters more than the acreage:

Inside the built-up city. Plots, yards and former commercial sites fall under policy S4 of the August 2026 framework: approve unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Edge land outside the Green Belt. Where unmet need is evidenced, policy S5 backs homes on edge land that sits well with an existing settlement and can be served by its roads, schools and drainage; a delivery result under 75% counts as that evidence. The supply shortfall adds weight, as evidence to be weighed rather than an automatic finding. This bites mostly on the western and southern edges, where the boundary is not Green Belt.
Green Wedge land. Still covered by policy CP18, but Royal Hill Road shows how the shortfall is weighed against it.
Grey belt and previously developed land. S5 does not reach the Green Belt. Land there must be grey belt, or previously developed, such as a yard with lawful buildings, which national policy treats differently from an open field.
Through the plan. The council keeps a call for sites form, adds each owner to its database and considers every site's suitability and constraints.

One limit: the council's call for sites takes only land inside the city, and a field just over the line goes to Amber Valley, Erewash or South Derbyshire, judged against that council's own plan. Our pages on brownfield and yards and on Derbyshire cover both sides.

Derby Between Its Final Consultation and Examination

The draft plan was consulted on from 12 January to 9 March 2026, and the Regulation 19 version followed. The council's emerging plan page recorded that consultation as closed when it was updated in September 2026, and said the council was reviewing the responses and intended to submit by the end of 2026. Its Local Development Scheme of February 2025 set out the rest:

From the Local Development Scheme, version 9, February 2025. The council's dates, which may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Submission to the Secretary of State	December 2026
Hearing sessions begin	Spring 2027
Adoption	Summer 2027

Below Every Threshold in the Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test is refreshed annually; the Housing Delivery Test 2025, with Derby at 71%, came out on 17 August 2026. Under 95% brings an action plan, under 85% a 20% buffer, and under 75% unmet need treated as evidenced under policy S5. Derby is under all three. The next supply statement would take a base date of 1 April 2027.

A Unitary Merger on Hold

The government's decision of 16 July 2026 would have put the city council into a new unitary council with South Derbyshire, Erewash and the southern side of Amber Valley from 1 April 2028. On 7 September 2026 it paused reorganisation, Derby and Derbyshire included, while stressing that it had not ended. The city council still decides applications and runs the plan.

Brownfield, plots, edge and Green Wedge land can be judged now, on today's supply and delivery figures.
Grey belt fields meet the need test today, so the grey belt judgement is the question.
Longer-term land belongs in the call for sites.

Questions About Land in Derby

My field is in the Green Belt near Spondon. With supply this low, is it grey belt?

The supply and delivery figures meet the need test, but they do not make a field grey belt. That depends mostly on how much it does to check the spread of Derby's built-up area. The council's assessment rated land west of Spondon, Stoney Lane included, weaker in that role, and Locko Road stronger. We test your field against the same purposes first.

Part of my land is in a Green Wedge. Does Royal Hill Road mean it will get permission?

Not automatically. With no five-year supply the wedge policy was treated as out of date, but the inspector still weighed the harm on that site, so the gap your land keeps between neighbourhoods matters.

My land is just outside the city in South Derbyshire. Does Derby's shortfall help?

Not directly. Each council counts its own supply, and South Derbyshire would decide the application against its own plan. Derby's unmet need is being planned for in the neighbouring councils' plans, which is where edge land usually comes forward.

The new plan has had its final consultation. Is it too late to put land in?

For this plan most sites are settled, though the examination can change things. The council's call for sites page gives no closing date for land inside the city, and with supply this short some land need not wait for a plan.

Will Derby still be short of land once the new plan is adopted?

Nobody can say yet. The new plan would bring its own requirement, built on the 12,500 homes the city can take, and supply would be tested against that instead of the standard method.

What price will you pay for my land?

We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.

When would I be paid?

You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.

Tell Us About Your Land in Derby

It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly.

We reply within 2 working days, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.

About your land

Which council area is the land in?

Type a few letters to find a council. Own land in more than one area? Give one here and tell us about the others below.

Postcode or nearest village *

Approximate size in acres

Not sure? Give your best guess.

Current use

Where is it?

Access

Land Registry title number (optional)

Your details

We need a phone number or an email address, whichever you prefer.

Your name *

Phone

Best time to call (optional)

Anything else we should know? (optional)

We use your details only to reply about your land. We do not contact the council or anyone else about it without your agreement. See our privacy notice.

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.