Selling Land in Chelmsford

• Fields of 2 acres or more against Great Leighs, Broomfield, Boreham, Danbury, Bicknacre or South Woodham Ferrers.
• Land beside the smaller villages outside the Green Belt, at a scale that suits the village.
• Yards, depots and previously developed land in the Green Belt to the south and west.
• Holdings with a road frontage that does not depend on the busiest junctions.
• Larger farms next to the city or to one of the planned garden communities.

Our land value page covers what land is worth before planning. We set the option price above that at the start and pay for all the planning.

• 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 110% result and the supply shortfall measure different things. The delivery test looks back at three years of completions, and the council's own housing report measured its building against the adopted plan's 805 homes a year. The five-year supply looks forward, and on 28 May 2025 the adopted plan became more than five years old. From that day national policy required the council to measure its supply against the government's standard method instead, a much higher figure.

What the Shortfall Does for a Site

Under the August 2026 framework, a council's failure to show five years of deliverable land is evidence of unmet housing need, which is one of the routes in policy S5 for homes beyond a settlement's limits. The land must relate physically well to that settlement and be served by existing or planned infrastructure, and S5 does not apply in the Green Belt. Inside the city and the villages, policy S4 already leans towards approval whatever the supply position.

Why Three Housing Figures Appear in the Council's Papers

The examination papers mention 1,210, 1,433 and 1,448 homes a year. The first is the submitted plan's requirement. The second is the standard method figure the council gave the inspectors in September 2026, which it calls the April 2026 figure, and the third is the one in the May 2026 supply statement. The standard method is recalculated as new data appear, so small differences between documents are to be expected. Measured against either figure, the supply in the May statement stays below five years. What matters is that supply is measured against the higher government figure until a new plan is adopted, and that the plan proposes less.

The submitted plan proposes no development in the Green Belt and none in the Green Wedge. Its settlement order places Chelmsford and South Woodham Ferrers first and splits each lower tier by the Green Belt line. Bicknacre, Boreham, Broomfield, Danbury and Great Leighs are key service settlements outside it, and Galleywood, Runwell, Stock and Writtle are key service settlements within it. Below them, East Hanningfield, Ford End, Great Waltham, Little Waltham, Rettendon Place and Woodham Ferrers sit outside, while Highwood, Margaretting, Ramsden Heath and Downham, Roxwell and West Hanningfield sit within.

1. Outside the Green Belt. A field that sits properly against one of the villages outside it, with a safe access, can be put forward under S5 while the shortfall lasts, alongside any case to the inspectors.
2. Inside the Green Belt. Land in the south and west has to show it is grey belt or previously developed. The supply shortfall matters here too, because national policy only allows homes on grey belt land where unmet need is evidenced. Our grey belt guide covers the purposes and the Golden Rules.
3. In the Green Wedge. Land the plan keeps open for flood management and recreation is the hardest to bring forward, and we will say so plainly.

Respondents to the last consultation questioned the plan's reliance on large sites and its shortage of small ones, so both bigger holdings and modest village sites have a part to play. Our farmland page explains how we approach a larger site.

The council's notice of 24 September 2026 confirms hearings at the Civic Centre on Duke Street, opening on Tuesday 10 November, with sitting weeks starting on 17 November and 1 December, each running Tuesday to Thursday and live-streamed. Housing numbers and the delayed sites head the inspectors' questions. If they accept the council's figure, the examination moves on to the sites; if they press for more homes, the council has said that would mean thousands more and major changes, which would take time.

Adoption in Spring 2027 Could Reset the Supply

The council's March 2026 policy board report said adoption could come in early spring 2027. An adopted plan with fresh allocations would normally let the council measure its supply against the plan's own requirement again, and on today's documents that would be the 1,210 a year it proposes. So the shortfall that supports applications on unallocated land now may not outlast adoption, and land outside the plan would then usually wait for the next review.

Delivery is slowing meanwhile. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 appeared on 17 August 2026, with a new edition every year, and the council's November 2025 housing report recorded 813 completions in 2024/25, down from 1,015 the year before, and expected about 470 in 2025/26, revised to 518 in its August figures. What the next result will be, we do not predict. A fall below 95% would mean an action plan, and below 85% a 20% buffer on the supply, deepening the shortfall.

The government withdrew its Essex reorganisation decisions on 7 September 2026 pending a review, so Chelmsford City Council takes its own plan through examination.

An Application Beside the Examination, or a Case at the Hearings

For well placed land outside the Green Belt, the shortfall carries most weight before adoption, and an application can run beside the examination. For land that needs the plan, the hearings are where the case is made. Our guide on how long planning takes sets out what follows either way.