Selling Land in South Derbyshire

• Fields of 2 acres or more beside Hilton, Etwall, Repton, Willington, Aston on Trent or another key service village, for Part 2.
• Paddocks and small fields of up to one hectare on the edge of a village, where the small sites share applies.
• Land inside a settlement boundary in Swadlincote, Woodville, Melbourne or the villages.
• Previously developed land, including former works and yards, in either Green Belt.
• Larger holdings on the Derby fringe or close to Swadlincote, looking ahead to the comprehensive plan that follows the review.

For land that belongs in Part 2, the evidence on access, drainage, ecology and, near the Mease, nutrients has to be ready before the draft. We pay for that work in full, under an option agreement whose price is settled on the first day, above the land's value as it stands. Farming or grazing carries on as before, and should planning never be granted, the land remains in your hands with nothing to repay. The how it works page walks through the steps.

• An outright sale. You sell the land as it stands today, privately or at auction. The price is what a buyer will pay for it without planning permission, and the buyer takes on everything that follows.
• A conditional contract. You agree a sale now, but it only completes if planning permission is granted. Until then you keep the land, and the agreement sets out who applies for permission and who pays.
• An option agreement, the route we use. We agree your price at the start, in writing, set above what your land is worth today. We then pay for and run all of the planning work, at our own cost and risk. If permission is granted, we complete the purchase and you receive the agreed price on completion. If it is not, you keep your land and owe nothing.

For land that needs planning permission before it is worth more, an option means you know your price before any work starts and never spend a penny on planning. The ways to sell land for development, compared sets out each route in full.

The Kings Newton Lane Appeal

Richborough's appeal sought up to 135 homes on land south of Kings Newton Lane, just outside Melbourne's settlement boundary, and an inquiry sat in November 2025. The site conflicted with policy H1, which allows homes of any number inside settlement boundaries but only exception or cross subsidy schemes of up to 25 homes beside them. The inspector's decision of 6 January 2026 turned on the supply. Both sides agreed the standard method figure of 592 homes a year and agreed that part of the supply should be discounted because it serves Derby. They disagreed on how much. The inspector took 24%, the share of the adopted requirement that is Derby's, which cut the council's best case of 4,038 deliverable homes to 3,069 against a requirement of 3,108, and to about 2,999 once most of the homes counted at the former Drakelow Power Station were set aside for want of evidence. The inspector concluded that the council had failed to show five years, found no harm to the Kings Newton Conservation Area about 65 metres away, and allowed the scheme with 30% affordable housing.

The April 2026 Position

The council's Housing Position Paper of April 2026 rolls the base date on to 1 April 2026 and adopts the same 24% discount, citing the Melbourne decision. It shows a supply under three different requirements:

Because the adopted plan is more than five years old, the standard method row is the one national policy points to. Its workings are tight: 4,274 net completions expected in the five years, reduced by 24% to 3,248, against 3,077 needed with the buffer. That is a margin of about 170 homes, roughly three months of building at recent rates.

Completions Are Falling

The same paper records net completions of 1,118 in 2022/23, 1,063 in 2023/24, 865 in 2024/25 and 668 in 2025/26. The council itself accepts that more sites are needed to keep delivery above local need, and that Derby's unmet need remains an issue it must help with. A slimmer margin and slowing completions mean the next statement could land on either side of five years. We do not predict which, but an owner on the edge of a key village should know that the position has already flipped once in 2026.

Part 2 holds the non-strategic sites and the settlement boundaries, and its review has begun. The issues and options document, consulted on from 24 November 2025 to 30 January 2026, sets out what is at stake:

• Settlement boundaries may be redrawn. The council says the boundaries may need to be reviewed again, against principles set out in the document.
• Small sites count. National policy expects 10% of the requirement on sites of one hectare or less, so paddocks and small fields beside villages have a part to play.
• A small gap to fill. The document identified a shortfall of 57 homes against the minimum requirement at that time.
• Four tiers. Below Swadlincote and the key service villages sit local service villages such as Findern, Hartshorne, Rosliston, Ticknall and Weston on Trent, then smaller rural villages.

Until then, policy H1 of the 2016 plan governs the edge of every settlement. Inside a boundary, national policy S4 applies, and a refusal there has to show harm that substantially outweighs what the scheme would bring. Just outside one, H1 allows up to 25 homes only as an exception or cross subsidy site, and a larger scheme depends on the supply position, as Melbourne showed. Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework could help a village-edge field only with proof of unmet need, and a supply above five years gives it none today; the land would also have to relate properly to the village and have the roads, schools and drainage to cope. Our page on paddocks and small sites describes the kind of village-edge land that suits Part 2.

For an owner selling a paddock of a hectare or less beside a village such as Findern, Ticknall or Weston on Trent, the 10% small sites share is the most direct reason Part 2 needs land of that kind.

The examination page names inspectors S Dean and W Cooper and says the hearing dates will be published once confirmed. The February 2026 statement of common ground expected submission in spring 2026 and adoption in the autumn. Submission came on 26 August instead, after a consultation on proposed modifications from 5 May to 16 June 2026, so adoption now turns on hearings whose dates were still to be fixed at the end of September 2026. Once adopted, the new plan's requirement, 764 homes a year in the council's table, would replace the standard method as the supply yardstick, with Derby's share built in rather than discounted; the council's own table puts that case at 5.32 years.

Part 2, and the Draft Where Sites Are First Named

The February 2026 statement of common ground aimed for a draft Part 2 in summer 2026, submission before 31 December 2026 and adoption in summer 2027. The council's Part 2 review page, updated in mid September 2026, still listed only the issues and options stage and its evidence, so the draft, when sites are first named, is the stage to prepare for. Sites can be put to the council through the site submission form on its land availability assessment page, which it reviews periodically. How a site moves through those stages is set out in our local plans guide.

A Thin Supply Margin and a Paused Closure

The next position paper, with an April 2027 base date, will show whether the thin margin held. The delivery test is updated every year; the edition in force, the Housing Delivery Test 2025, was issued on 17 August 2026. The council's own sum for 2023/24 to 2025/26 comes to about 148%, lower than 195% but still far above every threshold, so on the council's own count the test is unlikely to open a new route in the coming year. The supply is the figure to watch.

Under the July 2026 decision, the district council would have closed on 1 April 2028, joining Derby, Erewash and southern Amber Valley in a new council. On 7 September 2026 the government paused reorganisation for review, and the council notes that this is not the end of it. The Part 2 issues and options document had set out an ambitious timetable so that Part 2 could be adopted before 2028. For now the district council decides applications and runs both plan reviews.

Put together, the timing runs like this:

• Village-edge land is best readied for the draft Part 2, and watched against the next supply paper.
• Plots inside boundaries and previously developed land can be looked at now.
• Larger holdings are for the comprehensive plan that follows the review, and early evidence helps.