Essex council area

Selling Land in Brentwood

Brentwood has one of the highest shares of Green Belt of any council in England, a plan adopted in March 2022 that left part of its housing need unmet, and a review of that plan under way. The council can show just over five years of housing land today, and the way that figure is measured changes as the plan ages.

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A Small Borough on the Elizabeth Line

Brentwood Borough Council covers the town of Brentwood with Shenfield, Hutton, Pilgrims Hatch, Warley and Brook Street, the larger villages of Ingatestone and West Horndon, and a rural north of smaller places such as Blackmore, Doddinghurst, Kelvedon Hatch and Mountnessing. It is compact, at around 153 square kilometres, and home to about 79,000 people.

Four stations. Brentwood, Shenfield, Ingatestone and West Horndon, served between them by Elizabeth line, Greater Anglia and c2c trains, with the Elizabeth line calling at Brentwood and Shenfield.
Green Belt almost everywhere. The adopted plan records 89% of the borough as Metropolitan Green Belt, which it describes as the sixth highest share in England.
A plan that fell short on purpose. The Brentwood Local Plan 2016 to 2033 plans for 7,752 homes, and its own policy MG06 accepts that this is less than the borough's full assessed need.
Delivery above target. The council built 1,107 homes against a requirement of 1,002 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 110%.
Woodland and parkland. The plan counts 324 hectares of country park at South Weald and Thorndon, and Thames Chase Community Forest reaches across much of the south west.

Demand is not the question here. Almost every field between the settlements is protected, so what decides a site is which narrow route it fits.

Brentwood in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
110%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Homes built against homes needed
1,107
of 1,002 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
March 2022
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.

Five Years of Supply, by 84 Homes

The council's latest five-year housing land supply statement, published in January 2026 with a base date of 1 April 2025, finds 5.18 years. The figures behind it are worth setting out, because the margin is slim:

Source: Brentwood Borough Council five-year housing land supply statement, January 2026.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement used	400 homes, the step in the adopted plan for the years to 2029/30
Past shortfall	409 homes since 2016, spread over the eight years left in the plan (the "Liverpool" approach the plan itself uses), adding 255 to these five years
Buffer	5%, because the council passed the delivery test comfortably
Five-year requirement with buffer	2,368 homes
Deliverable supply	2,452 homes
Result	5.18 years

The statement uses 400 a year rather than the government's standard method because the plan was then less than five years old. It leaves out any sites that might come through the plan review, as their delivery is not yet established.

What a Supply Above Five Years Means for a Field

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, the route for homes beyond a settlement's limits where unmet need is evidenced, does not apply in the Green Belt, and the adopted plan records that all of the borough's countryside lies within it. So S5 has little reach in Brentwood whatever the numbers say. Grey belt is where the numbers bite. National policy only allows homes on grey belt land where the need for them is evidenced, and the usual ways of showing that are a delivery result below 75% or a supply short of five years. With a result of 110% and a supply above five years, neither applies here today. A grey belt case for housing is therefore hard to make at present, and for most fields it will wait on a change in the supply position or on the plan review.

The 2022 Plan and Its Stepped Target

The adopted plan does not ask for the same number of homes every year. It steps the requirement up as its large sites come on stream: 300 homes a year to 2023/24, 400 a year to 2029/30, and then 984 a year for the final three years to 2032/33. Most of the late growth depends on the strategic allocations the plan removed from the Green Belt:

Dunton Hills Garden Village (policy R01), east of the A128 and south of the A127 near West Horndon.
West Horndon Industrial Estate (policy R02), where the supply statement already counts homes in its five years.
Land north of Shenfield (policy R03), close to Shenfield station.

Dunton Hills

The council's planning committee resolved in November 2023 to grant outline permission for up to 3,700 homes at Dunton Hills, with schools and a village centre, subject to conditions and a legal agreement. The terms went back to committee in July 2025, when the report set out 30% affordable housing from the start, with viability reviews at 1,000 and 2,300 occupied homes that could raise it to the plan's 35%. The January 2026 supply statement lists the application as pending a decision and counts 844 homes from the garden village in its five years, starting with 25 in 2025/26.

The Promise the Plan Made

Policy MG06 committed the council to a partial update of the plan, aimed at meeting its full assessed need, to start as soon as the plan was adopted and to be submitted for examination within 28 months. In September 2023 councillors agreed to take it forward with a stronger focus on climate change. The review has since moved onto the longer timetable described below, and it is where most new land in the borough will be decided.

Routes That Suit an 89% Green Belt Borough

The plan puts the main urban area of Brentwood, Shenfield, Hutton, Pilgrims Hatch, Warley and Brook Street at the top of its settlement order, then Ingatestone and West Horndon, then the smaller villages and hamlets. Where your land sits in that order goes a long way to deciding its route:

Inside the main urban area. Plots within the built-up area are judged under policy S4, which leans towards approval and allows refusal only where the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Previously developed land in the Green Belt. Green Belt policy treats yards, depots, old commercial sites and plots carrying lawful buildings other than farm buildings differently from open fields, whatever the housing numbers say.
Near the stations. Policy L3 favours denser homes within an easy walk of a station with a good service, and it can reach some Green Belt land. With Elizabeth line trains at Brentwood and Shenfield, the walk to the platform matters more here than in most of Essex.
Through the plan review. Open fields that need a Green Belt boundary redrawn will, in most cases, come forward through the review rather than an application.

Our brownfield and yards page covers the second route, and the grey belt guide explains how Green Belt purposes are judged and the Golden Rules that follow.

The Plan Review: From Call for Sites to Adoption

The council ran its call for sites from 18 December 2023 to 4 March 2024 and received 133 submissions, which it has published on an interactive map. It has said the submissions are evidence only, to be tested through its land availability assessment, and it keeps the online form open on a rolling basis, so land can still be put forward.

The council's Local Development Scheme, approved in February 2025, sets out the stages that follow:

From the Brentwood Local Development Scheme 2025 to 2029. Dates are the council's and may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Preferred options consultation (Regulation 18)	Second quarter of 2026
Publication of the final plan (Regulation 19)	Second quarter of 2027
Submission for examination	First quarter of 2028
Examination	Second to fourth quarter of 2028
Adoption	First quarter of 2029

The council's consultations page lists no preferred options consultation so far, although the scheme placed it in the second quarter of 2026, so the later dates may well be revised. The sequence matters more than the quarter: the first draft shows which sites the council favours, and a site's evidence does most good if it is ready before then. Our guide to call for sites and local plans explains each stage.

The Land We Look for in Brentwood

Plots, large gardens and backland inside Brentwood, Shenfield, Hutton and Pilgrims Hatch.
Yards, depots and former commercial land in the Green Belt with lawful buildings or hardstanding.
Land within walking distance of Shenfield, Brentwood, Ingatestone or West Horndon station.
Fields enclosed by existing homes, roads or the railway on the edge of Ingatestone, West Horndon or the main urban area.
Larger holdings that could contribute to the growth the plan review has to find.

For land that belongs in the review, our work starts well before any application, with access, drainage, ecology, landscape and Green Belt evidence. We pay for all of it, under an option whose price is agreed on day one, above the land's current value. You keep using the land, and if permission is never secured you keep it and owe nothing. Our how it works page sets out the sequence.

Brentwood as Its Plan Turns Five

A New Yardstick for the Supply

The most important date for Brentwood land in the coming year is five years after the plan's adoption in March 2022. After that point, national policy generally swaps the plan's requirement for the government's standard method when a council tests its supply. The 400-a-year step behind the current 5.18 years would stop being the yardstick. We make no forecast of the result, but the margin today is only 84 homes, and a statement below five years would give well placed land an evidenced need it lacks now.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 110%, none of the test's consequences applies to Brentwood. A result below 95% would require an action plan, below 85% would add a 20% buffer to the supply calculation, and below 75% would mean unmet need is treated as evidenced under policy S5. The pace on Dunton Hills and the other strategic sites will feed straight into future results.

Reorganisation, Paused

In March 2026 the government decided that Brentwood, Chelmsford and Maldon would form a Mid Essex Council, with elections in May 2027 and services transferring in April 2028. On 7 September 2026 it withdrew that decision after new legal advice and opened a review, and the May 2027 elections will be held on existing council boundaries. For now, the borough council remains the body preparing the plan review.

What This Means for Timing

Previously developed land, sites within the towns and land near the stations can be looked at now, as none of them depends on the housing numbers.
Open Green Belt land is best prepared for the preferred options stage, with the call for sites form as the way in.
Unsure which applies? Our free review answers that first.

Questions About Land in Brentwood

The council has more than five years of supply. Is there any point asking about my field?

Yes, but the route differs. Without a shortfall, most open Green Belt land will come forward through the plan review rather than an application. Previously developed land, sites inside the towns and land near the stations are judged on other tests and can often be looked at now.

I put my land into the call for sites in 2024. Do I need to do anything else?

The submission keeps your land in view, but the council will judge it on evidence. Preparing that before the preferred options stage is the most useful step, and we pay for it where we take a site on.

My land is near Shenfield station. Does the Elizabeth line help?

It can. National policy now favours denser homes within an easy walk of a well served station, including on some Green Belt land. The walk to the platform and the frequency of trains are what count.

Does Dunton Hills make it harder for other land to come forward?

It meets much of the growth in the 2022 plan, but that plan accepted the borough's full need was not met, which is why the review exists and must find more land.

I have an old yard near Kelvedon Hatch. Is that treated like a field?

Usually not. Land with lawful commercial buildings or hardstanding counts as previously developed and has its own route in Green Belt policy. Farm buildings do not count, so the site's planning record comes first, and we look at it piece by piece.

Tell Us About Your Land in Brentwood

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, in confidence.

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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.