Selling Land in Derbyshire Dales

Policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework allows homes beyond a settlement boundary where there is evidenced unmet need, the land sits physically well with the town or village, and roads, schools and drainage can cope now or through planned works. Below 75% in the Housing Delivery Test, that need is taken as given. At 90%, the Dales must show it another way, and a shortfall in the five-year supply of deliverable sites is precisely the evidence the policy recognises.

What the Clifton Appeal Shows

In October 2024 the council refused 16 houses and two apartments on Clifton Road, citing safety on the A515, harm to the countryside, flooding and the risk of Clifton merging into Ashbourne. The inspector allowed the appeal, pointing to an overwhelming need for housing delivery and the 1.36 year supply, and found the adverse impacts would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits.

That was decided under the previous framework, but the reasoning carries across: a modest scheme against a village, where objections turn on character rather than a hard constraint, can succeed while the council is short of sites. It does nothing for an isolated field. Inside settlements, policy S4 already favours approval unless the harm would substantially exceed the benefits, whatever the housing numbers.

The draft policies set affordable housing at 30%, with 80% of that as social and affordable rent. In the market towns and Darley Dale it starts at major developments, but everywhere else it applies from five homes, so even a small village site carries it. Section 106 and CIL covers how these and other contributions are worked out.

Heritage adds its own layer. The Derwent Valley Mills were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in December 2001, and the adopted plan describes the site running along the valley from Cromford in the north to Whatstandwell in the south. The draft plan asks development to conserve and enhance its outstanding universal value.

The draft flood policy supports development that avoids areas of current or future flood risk and does not increase the risk elsewhere. We allow for all of this when we agree a price with you, and none of the cost falls on you.

The Next Housing Delivery Test

The test is published once a year; the Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026. At 90% the council sits between the 85% and 95% lines. A result below 85% would add a 20% buffer to the land supply calculation, deepening an already large shortfall, and below 75% unmet need would be taken as given. A result of 95% or more would end the action plan duty but would not repair the land supply.

The Land Supply

The council's planning policy pages carry its monitoring reports, Housing Delivery Test results and Local Development Scheme, but no current five-year supply statement, so the 1.36 years tested at Clifton is the latest figure on the public record and the one we work from. A gap that wide is not closed by one good year, and the new plan's sites count only once they are allocated and ready to build.

Two Timetables, One Direction

The council's Local Development Scheme page still shows the scheme adopted on 7 December 2023, aiming for submission in June 2025 and adoption in March 2026. Reporting in July 2026 gives the current timetable: submission in December 2026, examination in 2027 and likely adoption in early 2028, though consultants warned in April it could slip to early 2029. The older scheme predates what the council calls the grossly increased housing requirement set in autumn 2024, which it says means allocating as many sites as possible to pass inspection. Under either timetable the 2017 plan stays in force, and the shortfall stays live, until a new plan is adopted.

The Park's Share of the Housing Figure

We expect the split with the National Park to be tested hardest at examination. The council's preferred figure assumed the park would take 158 homes a year, but the Park Authority's own draft plan, reported in September 2026, plans for 87 a year to 2045, allocates no sites, and contains no planned growth in response to national targets. If the inspector sides with the park, the difference would fall on the land the council controls, and its list of sites would look short.

Reorganisation

On 16 July 2026 the government decided on two unitary councils for Derbyshire, placing the Dales in a Derbyshire North council with High Peak, Chesterfield, North East Derbyshire, Bolsover and the northern part of Amber Valley, due to start in April 2028. On 7 September 2026 the government paused that decision for review, with no timeline yet for the outcome. Derbyshire Dales District Council remains the authority deciding applications and taking its plan forward.

What This Means for Your Timing

Land in the draft plan needs its allocation supported at examination. Land outside it but well placed against a town or village has a case now, while the shortfall lasts. Larger southern holdings point to the next plan cycle. The how it works page explains what we take on at each stage, and the wider county picture is on our Derbyshire page.