Selling Land 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.

• 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 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. Either way the plan meets only about half of the need, and that is the gap the inspectors are testing.

1. The question being tested. Whether the council has shown that meeting its full need would cause harm that significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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:

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.

The Daws Heath Road Appeal and the Supply

That test has now been applied on the mainland. On 14 September 2026 an inspector allowed up to 58 homes on land south of Daws Heath Road, Thundersley, half of them affordable. The decision treats the site as grey belt and the scheme as compliant with the Golden Rules, and it records the council's acknowledgement, agreed by both sides, that it could show only 0.91 years of housing land. The same decision gave the emerging plan very limited weight. With no up-to-date housing target, the council measures its supply against the government's standard method, which its planning FAQ puts at 686 homes a year, a five-year requirement of about 4,116 homes once the buffer is added. A shortfall that deep does not make every field grey belt, but it leaves no doubt that homes are needed, so a mainland site that passes the grey belt test starts with that weight behind it.

The next step in Castle Point is the inspectors' response to the September sessions, and each of the three outcomes described earlier carries its own timescale:

The Housing Delivery Test is unlikely to change that picture in its next few editions. It is republished yearly but counts three years at a time, and a council at 11% is a very long way from the 75% line, so under policy S5 unmet need will go on being treated as evidenced. What the inspectors decide about supply matters far more than the next edition.

A Stepped Target Averaging 231 a Year After Adoption

The same FAQ explains that once the Castle Point Plan is adopted, its own stepped target replaces the standard method in the supply calculation, averaging 231 homes a year over the first ten years and 555 a year after that. Measured against the lower figure, the supply would look very different, so the weight a shortfall carries in an application today may not outlast adoption.

A Larger Council, Withdrawn

In March 2026 the government confirmed a South East Essex Council for Castle Point, Rochford and Southend-on-Sea, which was to take on planning and every other service in April 2028. On 7 September 2026 ministers withdrew that decision and opened a review. Castle Point Borough Council therefore stays the planning authority through the examination, and the May 2027 elections go ahead on today's council boundaries.

For owners of mainland fields, the weeks after the inspectors' letter are the ones to be ready for. On Canvey the flood tests apply whichever way the examination goes, so waiting brings no advantage there.