Derbyshire council area

Selling Land in North East Derbyshire

North East Derbyshire has the highest delivery result in the county, yet its own statement now puts its land supply below five years: 4.47 years for decisions since 1 July 2026, when a 20% buffer began to apply to the 330 homes a year in a plan adopted on 29 November 2021. From 30 November 2026 the yardstick becomes the government's figure of 563 a year, which the council says gives 2.99 years, and more than a third of the capacity on its shortlist for the next plan lies in the Green Belt.

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Dronfield, Clay Cross and the Villages Between Sheffield and Chesterfield

North East Derbyshire District Council is based at Wingerworth and covers about 276 square kilometres of north east Derbyshire, home to 106,646 people in 2024. Dronfield, between Chesterfield and Sheffield, is the largest place. Clay Cross is the district's other town, and its larger settlements also include Eckington, Killamarsh and Wingerworth.

A Green Belt across much of the district. The council's monitoring report places it between Sheffield and Chesterfield in the north, between Chesterfield and Wingerworth in the south, and on the land west of Chesterfield out to the Peak District boundary.
A corner of the National Park. North East Derbyshire is one of the Peak District's eleven constituent authorities. Inside the park boundary, the Park Authority rather than the district council handles planning.
A plan to 2034. The North East Derbyshire Local Plan 2014 to 2034, adopted in November 2021, asks for 6,600 homes, or 330 a year.
Far ahead on delivery. The council built 1,874 homes against a requirement of 698 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 268%.

The plan was a long time coming. The Derby Telegraph reported its adoption in December 2021 as the end of more than a decade of battles, passed by 22 votes to 16 with seven abstentions, and noted that it still included housing sites on Green Belt land at Killamarsh and Dronfield. Those arguments are about to return, at a much larger scale.

North East Derbyshire 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
268%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
4.47 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the adopted Local Plan requirement of 330 homes a year plus a 20% buffer, which applies to decisions from 1 July to 29 November 2026 (from 30 November 2026 the council measures against the standard method, 563 homes a year plus 5%, which gives 2.99 years). Stated by North East Derbyshire District Council (Five Year Housing Land Supply Statement 2026, June 2026).
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,874
of 698 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
November 2021
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

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.

Short of Five Years on the Plan's Own Figure Since 1 July 2026

The council's Five Year Housing Land Supply Statement 2026, published in June 2026 with a base date of 1 April 2026, measures supply against the plan's 330 homes a year until the plan's strategic policies turn five, and gives a different answer for each stage of the year:

Source: North East Derbyshire District Council, Five Year Housing Land Supply Statement 2026 (June 2026). The deliverable supply is 1,770 homes in every row.
Period	Yearly requirement with buffer	Five-year requirement	Council's result
1 April to 30 June 2026	330 plus 5%, or 346	1,733 homes	5.11 years
1 July to 29 November 2026, for decisions	330 plus 20%, or 396	1,980 homes	4.47 years
From 30 November 2026	563 plus 5%, or 591	2,956 homes	2.99 years

The supply side does not change between the rows. The council projects 378, 374, 410, 362 and 246 completions in the five years to 2030/31, 1,770 in all, counting only sites that already have planning permission, including 249 homes on small sites after a 7% allowance for permissions that lapse. The district built 5,299 homes from 2014 to 2026 against 3,960 required, 1,339 more, so there is no past shortfall to add, but the council's sums take nothing off for that surplus either. What moves is the yardstick.

The 20% Buffer That Has Applied Since 1 July 2026

The rule behind the middle row came into force on 1 July 2026 and applies to decisions only. Where a council's requirement is under five years old, was tested at examination against a framework earlier than December 2024, and comes to 80% or less of the standard method figure, the buffer becomes 20%. The council's statement confirms that this applies from 1 July until 29 November 2026, because 330 homes a year is less than 80% of the latest need figure of 563. For those five months its own figure is 4.47 years, 210 homes short of the 1,980 needed.

What the Council Expected, and What Happened

The council's Authority Monitoring Report for 2024/25, published in October 2025, was candid. Based on the evidence then and assuming no new sites came forward, it expected the supply to fall below five years at 1 April 2026 even before the yardstick changed. On the plan's figure with a 5% buffer it held just above, at 5.11 years; the 20% buffer, and then the change of yardstick, are what take it below.

Where the Homes Come From

The supply leans on a handful of large permissions. In the council's 2025 statement, four sites made up 930 of the 1,845 homes it counted: land south west of Upperthorpe Road at Killamarsh, 315 homes by Harron Homes and Homes by Honey on an outline permission won at appeal for up to 397; the former Avenue site at Wingerworth, 248; Windy Ridge at Holmewood, 192 by Avant Homes; and land at the Poplars, Old Tupton, 175. As those sites finish, the count falls unless new permissions replace them.

The Yardstick From 30 November 2026

Once strategic policies pass five years, national policy measures supply against the government's standard method figure for local housing need rather than the plan's requirement. The council puts that figure at 563 homes a year for 2026, or 591 with a 5% buffer, so five years means 2,956 homes against the same 1,770, a gap of 1,186 and 2.99 years on its own sums. New permissions granted before then will change the count, and we make no forecast of the next statement. For its new plan, the council's Cabinet has been working to a figure of about 600 homes a year.

The Avenue, Biwaters and a Plan That Ran Ahead

By March 2025 the district had built 4,890 homes against 3,630 required since 2014. The monitoring report puts the average at 444 a year, 34% above the plan, with 776 homes in 2022/23, 543 in 2023/24 and 555 in 2024/25. The 2026 statement adds 409 for 2025/26, still well above 330, though the lowest total since 2018/19. The plan's strategic sites are at very different stages, and their progress shapes what is left to find:

The Avenue, Wingerworth. A mixed-use site of up to 1,100 homes, guided by the council's Avenue Area Strategic Framework. Only 15 homes were finished there in 2024/25, against about 30 a year expected.
Biwaters, Clay Cross. A revised outline scheme of 825 homes, approved in 2018 and built out in phases, with about 5 hectares of its employment land still to come.
Coalite. A 61-hectare former chemical works shared with Bolsover. Safeguarding for a realigned HS2 route once cut across its eastern end, affecting two proposed housing plots and a key access, but the government has dropped the northern leg and lifted the direction. By March 2025 two large industrial buildings, about 46,000 square metres, were well under way.
Markham Vale. Employment land at Long Duckmanton, with under 2 hectares still available on the district's side.

Brownfield land still does a good deal of work. The council records that 36% of new homes in 2024/25, 203 of 561 before losses, were built on previously developed land. Affordable housing is set by policy LC2: on sites of ten or more homes, or half a hectare or more, 30% in the district's higher value areas and 20% elsewhere. That requirement is one of the costs a scheme carries, and we account for it before any figure is agreed.

From Sheffield's Edge to the Peak District Boundary

Where your land sits in relation to the settlements, the Green Belt and the park decides which route, if any, is open:

Inside a town or village. Plots, backland and old commercial sites within the built-up areas of Dronfield, Clay Cross, Eckington, Killamarsh or the villages fall under policy S4 of the national framework as revised in August 2026, which starts from support and allows a refusal only if the harm would substantially outweigh the gains.
Countryside outside the Green Belt. Policy S5 supports homes past a settlement's edge where housing need is shown to be going unmet, provided the land relates well to the place beside it and the local roads, school places and drainage have room for it. The usual evidence is a supply under five years, weighed case by case rather than applied automatically. The council's own statement now shows 4.47 years for decisions until 29 November 2026 and 2.99 years from the day after, so that evidence is there to weigh.
Green Belt. S5 does not reach Green Belt land. Grey belt, meaning Green Belt land that contributes little to its purposes, can take homes only where need is evidenced, most often by a supply short of five years, and schemes above a certain size must also satisfy the Golden Rules for affordable homes, infrastructure and accessible green space. With the council's own figures below five years, the need test is met on the council's own figures, so the real question for a Green Belt field is whether it qualifies as grey belt at all.
Previously developed land in the Green Belt. An old yard, depot or works site, where the buildings or hard surfacing were lawful, is judged under separate national tests that do not hinge on the housing figures.
Inside the Peak District. The Park Authority's draft plan, put to its meeting on 10 July 2026, allows up to 1,740 homes across the whole park by 2045, restricts open market housing and relies on exception sites for affordable homes meeting local need.

Land just outside the park boundary, around Holmesfield or west of Dronfield, is decided by the district council, although its effect on the park's setting is weighed. Our grey belt guide explains how Green Belt purposes are judged.

A 2024 to 2044 Plan With 6,000 Green Belt Homes on Its Shortlist

The council began its new plan before the old one reached five years. It ran a call for sites that closed on 10 January 2025 and consulted on issues and options in the summer of 2025. Its February 2026 Cabinet report then set out where the numbers had landed:

About 600 homes a year. The report says the council must proceed on the basis of meeting the standard method figure, which the government treats as mandatory.
A large shortlist. Shortlisted sites could hold almost 18,000 homes, with a further 1,800 already permitted.
Heavy reliance on the Green Belt. About 37% of that capacity, roughly 6,000 homes, lies in the Green Belt.
Where people wanted growth. The largest share of respondents at the issues and options stage, 24%, favoured the edges of Chesterfield. The report ranks the edges of Chesterfield and Sheffield, a new settlement or strategic site, and the main towns as first priorities.

A further issues and options consultation, on the proposed development strategy and the sites that had passed assessment, ran from 12 March to 30 April 2026. The council expected the findings of a new Green Belt review, together with a review of its local settlement gaps, by June 2026, to inform its choice of preferred sites. It described the December 2026 submission target as already challenging.

The March 2026 consultation document set out how the council means to choose. The government, it said, requires a strategy for around 600 homes a year. Allocations will cascade down the settlement hierarchy, starting with the edges of Chesterfield and Sheffield, a new settlement or strategic sites and the main towns, and the council will make the most of land outside the Green Belt before turning to Green Belt sites, and then only where exceptional circumstances can be shown. Sites in the Green Belt stayed on the list pending the review, which the document said would be published with the consultation on the Publication Draft Local Plan later in the year, and sites in the two highest priority locations were given a 20% uplift in capacity after support for higher densities around the larger settlements.

From the council's Local Development Scheme (November 2024), its 2024/25 monitoring report, its February 2026 Cabinet report and its March 2026 consultation document. Later dates may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Call for sites closed	10 January 2025
Issues and options consultation	June and July 2025
Further issues and options consultation	12 March to 30 April 2026
Green Belt review findings	Due by June 2026
Publication Draft plan consultation	June and July 2026 in the February 2026 Cabinet report; September 2026 in the March 2026 consultation document
Submission for examination	Aimed for December 2026
Hearings, inspector's report and adoption	April or May 2027, February 2028 and May 2028 in the 2024 timetable

The Local Development Scheme names the new plan the North East Derbyshire Local Plan 2024 to 2044. For a Green Belt field, the Green Belt review is the document that matters most: it decides which parcels the council regards as weak enough to release or treat as grey belt.

The Land We Look for in North East Derbyshire

Fields of 2 acres or more on the edge of Dronfield, Eckington, Killamarsh, Clay Cross or Wingerworth.
Green Belt land between Sheffield, Dronfield and Chesterfield that is enclosed by roads, housing or the railway.
Land beside the Chesterfield boundary, where the council's own consultation found most support for growth.
Former works, depots, yards and similar brownfield sites, whether or not they are in the Green Belt.
Larger holdings that could form part of a strategic site or new settlement.

Many landowners here farm the land they would put forward, and our page on farmland explains how we approach it. We take on the whole planning effort, from the Green Belt evidence to the application and any appeal, and pay for all of it under an option agreed at a price fixed on day one, above today's value. You carry on farming until completion, and should permission be refused, the land remains yours with nothing owed to us.

The Plan's Fifth Birthday on 29 November 2026, and What Follows

A New Yardstick for Supply

The plan turns five on 29 November 2026, and from the next day the council measures supply against the standard method rather than 330 homes a year. Its own statement puts the result at 2.99 years from that date, against 4.47 years under the 20% buffer that applies until then. On either measure the council cannot show five years, so land outside the Green Belt has evidenced need to weigh under S5, and Green Belt land that qualifies as grey belt meets the need test. The council's next statement, with a base date of 1 April 2027, will be the first measured wholly on the new yardstick.

The Plan's Own Deadline

The council has been aiming to submit its new plan by December 2026. Whether it does, and which Green Belt parcels the pre-submission version includes, will shape the district for the next two decades. A submitted plan carries more weight against sites it has not chosen, so with a shortfall in the council's own figures, the months before submission are when an application on well placed unallocated land outside the Green Belt has most force.

The Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and the next edition will follow in the usual yearly cycle. At 268%, the district is nowhere near the 95%, 85% or 75% lines that bring action plans, a larger buffer or automatic unmet need. The supply position, not the delivery test, is what opens doors here.

Reorganisation, on Hold

Under the government's decision of 16 July 2026, the district would have joined Chesterfield, Bolsover, High Peak, Derbyshire Dales and northern Amber Valley in a Derbyshire North Council from April 2028. That decision was paused for a review on 7 September 2026, with no timescale yet known for the outcome. For now the district council decides applications and runs its plan.

What This Means for Timing

Green Belt land: now is the time to assemble the evidence, for the pre-submission plan and for a grey belt case while the supply is short.
Land outside the Green Belt on a settlement edge: the council's own figures are below five years now and lower still from 30 November, so a well placed site can be looked at before the plan is submitted.
Previously developed land and sites inside the towns: these can be reviewed today. The stages from first look to decision are set out in how long planning takes.

Questions About Land in North East Derbyshire

My field is in the Green Belt between Dronfield and Sheffield. Could it be grey belt?

Possibly. The council has a new Green Belt review under way, and about 37% of its shortlisted capacity is already Green Belt land. Grey belt homes also need an evidenced shortfall, and the council's 2026 statement shows one: 4.47 years for decisions from 1 July 2026, and 2.99 years from 30 November. We would look at how the field serves the Green Belt purposes before anything else.

The district builds far more than its plan asks. Why is it short of land?

Because the yardstick has moved, not because building has stopped. The 1,770 homes the council counts would be 5.11 years against 330 a year with a 5% buffer. Since 1 July 2026 decisions carry a 20% buffer, which gives 4.47 years, and from 30 November 2026 the requirement becomes the government's figure of 563 a year plus 5%, which gives 2.99 years. The 1,339 homes built above the plan since 2014 do not reduce the requirement in the council's sums.

My land is near Holmesfield. Does the district council or the Peak District decide?

It depends on which side of the park boundary the land sits. Inside the park, the Park Authority decides, and its draft plan restricts open market homes. Outside, the district council decides, with the park's setting taken into account.

I put land into the call for sites in January 2025. What happens now?

The council has shortlisted sites with room for almost 18,000 homes, well above the roughly 12,000 that 600 a year over the twenty-year plan would call for, so it will be choosing between them. Evidence on access, drainage, ecology and the Green Belt helps a site through that choice, and we prepare it at our cost.

I farm near Clay Cross. Does Biwaters mean the town has had its share?

Not necessarily. Biwaters and the Avenue are allocations in the current plan, which asks for 330 homes a year, and the next plan has to find land for about 600. The main towns are among the council's first priorities for growth.

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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.