Selling Land in Rother

Rother District Council covers Bexhill-on-Sea, Battle, Rye and a large rural area, and borders Hastings and, to the east, the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent. Its pre-submission plan names Bexhill-on-Sea as the principal urban area and the historic market towns of Battle and Rye as secondary centres. The rest is villages and farmland, from Robertsbridge, Hurst Green and Ticehurst inland to Camber and Rye Harbour on the coast.

• One town rated highly sustainable. The plan calls Bexhill the only settlement rated "highly sustainable" in its 2024 settlement study, and it takes 4,540 of the 7,271 homes allocated.
• Over four fifths National Landscape. The cabinet report of 14 September 2026 puts the High Weald National Landscape over some 83% of the district and designated habitats sites on roughly another 7%.
• Less than half the homes needed. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 776 homes built against 2,197 required over three years, a result of 35%, so national policy treats unmet need here as evidenced.
• A plan more than five years old. The Core Strategy of September 2014 planned for 5,700 homes from 2011 to 2028, and the Development and Site Allocations Local Plan followed on 16 December 2019. The council's statement calls the Core Strategy more than five years old and measures supply against the standard method instead.

Rother's papers carry three housing numbers, each with its own job:

The two government figures most likely differ because the housing stock and affordability ratio the method uses were refreshed between the documents. On either one the district is well short. The bigger gap is between need and plan: the plan's spatial strategy puts need at 15,215 homes over its 17 years and provides at least 8,755, under three fifths. It says there is insufficient capacity to meet the government's figure and that discussions with neighbouring authorities found none able to take the difference. Summaries use rounder numbers: the cabinet report speaks of around 8,500 homes, about 510 a year, and the January 2026 site assessment found room for 8,427.

Until adoption, supply is measured against the government's figure. Afterwards, the cabinet report says, it would be measured against the plan's own figure of about 510 a year, which it calls easier and more realistic to meet.

Policy SS2 of the plan directs development inside development boundaries and limits it in the countryside beyond. Five routes do most of the work:

1. Inside a development boundary: policy S4. Plots, backland, yards and redundant buildings inside Bexhill, Battle, Rye or a village boundary are judged under policy S4: permission unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
2. At the fringe of a town or village: policy S5. With need treated as evidenced, a field that adjoins a settlement properly and can be served by its infrastructure can be put forward now. Inside the National Landscape, policy LAN2 refuses major development other than in exceptional circumstances and where it is in the public interest, so scale decides.
3. A small group at a village. Policy HOU11 of the pre-submission plan allows single homes, pairs or terraces of three or four next to an existing built-up frontage, where they do not merge settlements or fill green gaps through which the High Weald is glimpsed, and are occupied as a principal residence. Affordable housing starts at six homes inside the High Weald, not ten.
4. Rural exception sites. Policy HOU3 supports affordable homes where a local need, shown by a survey no more than five years old, is identified, kept affordable in perpetuity.
5. Through the plan. Larger sites come forward by allocation, and representations on the pre-submission plan put a site in front of the inspector.

Smaller parcels suit the third and fourth routes; our page on paddocks and small sites sets out what we look for. The plan asks for 30% affordable housing on greenfield sites and 10% on brownfield sites above its thresholds.

Full council approved the pre-submission plan for publication on 21 September 2026, by 21 votes to 11 on a roll call.

The Next Tests

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. We do not forecast Rother's next result, but from 35% the district would need a large rise to pass 75%, and the 20% buffer stays until a result reaches 85%. The January 2026 statement measured supply at 1 April 2025, so one at 1 April 2026 would be next in the series. Allocations in the new plan count towards supply only once it is adopted.

Racing the Deadline for the Current System

The cabinet report of 14 September 2026 said the six-week consultation might start before the end of September or in early October, and that the plan would return to full council in December. The council intends to submit it before the end of December 2026 so that it is examined under the existing plan-making system, and warns that other councils submitting by then may delay its examination.

Reorganisation is on hold. In a statement to the Commons on 7 September 2026, the Secretary of State listed East Sussex among the 14 areas whose July 2026 decisions are under full review, asked for reorganisation activity to pause and confirmed that the May 2027 elections would go ahead on existing council boundaries.

What That Means for Timing

Edge-of-settlement land outside the gaps has its strongest footing before adoption, while supply is measured against the government's figure. Land for allocation needs its representation in during the consultation, with evidence.