Essex council area

Selling Land in Castle Point

Castle Point scored 11% in the latest Housing Delivery Test, still relies on a local plan from 1998 and is now defending a new one before two inspectors. Its 45 square kilometres hold nearly 100,000 people, split between the mainland towns and Canvey Island.

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Castle Point at a Glance

The borough covers about 45 square kilometres and has nearly 100,000 residents, with only three main road routes in and out. The council's Green Belt evidence lists the only areas outside the Green Belt as the urban areas of Canvey Island, Benfleet, Thundersley, Hadleigh and Daws Heath. Everything else, including the fields and marshes between them, is Green Belt.

A delivery score of 11%. That is the council's result in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, far below the 75% line in national policy.
An old plan and a new one at examination. The adopted local plan dates from 1998, which is also when the Green Belt boundary was last changed. The new Castle Point Plan, covering 2026 to 2043, was submitted on 31 January 2026.
Just over half Green Belt. The council's own figure is 53% of the borough, about 2,500 hectares, excluding land beyond the sea defences.
An island below the tide. Canvey sits about two metres below high tide level and relies on 14 miles (23km) of tidal defences.
A c2c station at Benfleet. Benfleet is on the c2c line between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness.

A result this low, in a borough with so little open land outside the Green Belt, is why the examination now under way matters so much to anyone holding land here.

Castle Point in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
11%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
119
of 1,052 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
None listed
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Submitted for examination
As at January 2026.

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.

The Castle Point Plan Before the Inspectors

The council has taken what it calls a brownfield-first approach, focusing new homes on land already in urban use. The plan was published for consultation from 1 August to 26 September 2025 and submitted on 31 January 2026. Two inspectors, M Worden and C Carpenter, were appointed on 20 February.

The central issue is numbers. As reported by Planning Geek, the government's standard method gives a need of 11,662 homes for 2026 to 2043, while the plan provides for 6,196, about 53% of it and a shortfall of 5,466. The inspectors said they had significant concerns about soundness on housing requirement and supply, and held initial hearings on 8 to 10 September 2026 to explore them before going further.

You may see a slightly different shortfall quoted. When the plan was published in August 2025, the borough's MP, Dame Rebecca Harris, put it at approximately 5,446 homes, also 53% of the target. The gap of 20 homes most likely reflects supply figures refreshed between publication and examination; the council issued a Housing Position Update Note in July 2026. For a landowner the difference is immaterial. On either figure the plan meets only about half of the need, and it is that gap, not the last few homes, that the inspectors are testing.

The question being tested. Whether the council has shown that meeting its full need would cause harm that significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits.
What the plan does with the Green Belt. Its only proposed boundary changes remove two existing Traveller sites, at Janda Fields and Orchard Place, exclude the River Thames and add 11 hectares at the Canvey Wick SSSI. The plan makes no allocations in the Green Belt.
Possible outcomes. The examination could continue on the council's approach, the council could be asked to find more land, or the plan could struggle to be found sound. None of these has been decided.

The council published its closing remarks, a sequential test note and an update on Green Belt sites with live planning applications straight after the September sessions, and the inspectors' view is still awaited. Where extra land would come from is already argued over. Dame Rebecca Harris objected that the plan puts over 3,300 homes on Canvey Island despite its flood risk, and pointed to land on the mainland, particularly around the Blinking Owl, as an alternative. For owners around Benfleet, Thundersley and Hadleigh, that debate is the one to watch. A site with its access, drainage and landscape evidence ready can be put in front of them quickly, and the call for sites and local plans guide describes how that is done while a plan is being examined.

Canvey Island: Living With the Tide

Canvey Island is the first thing any planning officer in Castle Point thinks about. All of the island's more than 15,000 homes are at risk of tidal flooding, and they are protected by defences put in place after the 1953 flood. The Environment Agency looks after the sea defences and main rivers, and is working on the island's sea wall revetment as part of its long-term programme for the Thames estuary.

The island also floods from heavy rain, because its rainfall has to be carried away by a linked network of surface water sewers, open and culverted ditches, ponds and pumping stations. In August 2013 flash flooding affected about 50 properties around Maurice Avenue, and in July 2014, 100mm of rain fell in four hours and more than 200 properties were affected.

What That Means for a Site on Canvey

Because the whole island is at risk of tidal flooding, new homes there have to pass the sequential test, and usually the exception test as well. In practice, schemes on Canvey need a detailed flood risk assessment, a drainage design that does not add to the strain on the pumped network, and homes designed to stay safe if the defences were ever overtopped. Land classed as functional floodplain is treated as a strong reason to refuse.

Homes are still built on Canvey, but the island is a place where the flood case has to be settled before anything else is designed. How the sequential and exception tests work is set out in our flood risk guide; on Canvey both will almost always apply.

The Mainland: Benfleet, Thundersley and Hadleigh

Most of the borough's open land is on the mainland, and nearly all of it is Green Belt. Each part of it raises a different local question:

Area	What shapes the planning case
Benfleet	Benfleet station and its c2c service. Land within walking distance of the station may fall under policy L3.
Thundersley and New Thundersley	Fields between the towns, where the role land plays in keeping settlements apart is often the deciding issue.
Hadleigh and Daws Heath	Hadleigh Country Park, an SSSI run by Essex County Council, and the 13th century Hadleigh Castle, with views over the Thames estuary. Heritage setting and landscape views matter here.
Edges of the built-up area	Paddocks, yards and small fields hemmed in by housing and roads, where the Green Belt contribution may be limited.

With the built-up areas already so close together, the open land that remains mostly does one job: keeping them apart and holding the edge of the towns. A field doing that job strongly will not be grey belt. A paddock boxed in by houses on three sides, with no view across to a neighbouring town, may well be. The grey belt guide explains the purposes in full, and the Golden Rules a scheme must then meet.

Estuary Wildlife and the Costs It Brings

The Benfleet and Southend Marshes Special Protection Area and Ramsar site lies within the borough, and the whole of Castle Point is inside its zone of influence. Every new home in the borough therefore pays towards the Essex Coast recreational disturbance strategy (RAMS). The charge rose to £476 per home from 1 August 2026, up from £175.55. Canvey Wick is a nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest, and Hadleigh Country Park is also an SSSI.

These designations add cost and design work rather than stopping development on their own. A scheme near the marshes may also need a bird survey and buffers to sensitive land, on top of the payment per home. We commission and pay for that work, together with ecology, drainage, access and biodiversity net gain assessments, as part of preparing the planning case.

The Land We Look for in Castle Point

Fields and paddocks on the mainland that sit against existing homes in Benfleet, Thundersley or Hadleigh.
Land within walking distance of Benfleet station.
Yards, workshops and other previously developed land, on the mainland or on Canvey.
Sites with a safe road access that does not rely on a single narrow lane.
Land outside the functional floodplain, with room for drainage on site.

On a Castle Point site the costly early work is usually the flood risk assessment and, near the creeks, the bird and habitat surveys. We commission and pay for those, and for everything after them, under a price fixed at the start and set above what the land is worth to you today. Your land stays yours, and in your use, until permission is secured and we complete. If the council or an inspector says no, you owe us nothing. We also contribute to your own solicitor and land agent fees, so it costs you nothing to get the agreement done properly.

Questions About Land in Castle Point

Castle Point is at 11%. Why is my Green Belt field not an easy win?

The shortfall route in national policy stops at the Green Belt boundary, and the submitted Castle Point Plan releases no Green Belt for general housing. So a mainland field has to be shown to be grey belt, or to have been built on before, unless the inspectors push the council to allocate more. In either case the 11% result is strong background evidence that homes are needed.

What happens if the inspectors decide the plan needs more homes?

Councils in that position are often asked to look for further sites. We cannot say how the Castle Point examination will end, but if more land is sought, sites with ready evidence on access, flooding and landscape are the ones that can be considered quickly.

I own land on Canvey Island. Is it worth looking at?

It can be, particularly previously developed land. Flood risk is the first thing we test, and we will tell you plainly whether we think a scheme could pass the sequential and exception tests.

My land is next to Hadleigh Castle Country Park. Does that rule it out?

Not automatically. Views from the country park and the setting of the castle, which was begun around 1215, would shape any scheme, and on some land they may be decisive. We look at that early, before any money is spent on detailed design.

Who pays for the flood and ecology reports?

We do. Every survey, report and application fee is paid by us, including any appeal. You keep using your land while the work is done.

Tell Us About Your Land in Castle Point

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Sources

We update this page when new Housing Delivery Test results or local plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.