Gloucestershire council area

Selling Land in Forest of Dean District

The Forest of Dean builds more homes than the government's delivery test asks of it, yet the council's own monitoring finds only 1.93 years of housing land against the higher need set in December 2024. Its core strategy dates from 2012, and in June 2026 councillors withdrew the draft plan meant to replace it and started again on a plan to 2046.

Free review of your land in Forest of Dean District or call 07958 351879

We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
Your price is agreed up front, in writing
If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing

Four Towns Between the Severn and the Wye

Forest of Dean District Council, based in Coleford, covers about 526 square kilometres of west Gloucestershire and a population of close to 90,000. The district takes its name from the ancient woodland that covers much of it, and in the council's own words the Rivers Severn and Wye form much of the border of its southern part.

Four towns. Cinderford, Coleford, Lydney and Newent, followed in the council's 2026 draft hierarchy by major villages such as Bream, Drybrook, Mitcheldean, Newnham on Severn and Tutshill and Sedbury.
Over target on delivery. The district built 1,270 homes against a requirement of 991 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 128%.
Short of land. The council's monitoring report for 2024 to 2025 puts the five-year supply at 1.93 years from 1 April 2025, and says the housing policies of its Core Strategy are out of date as a result.
Old plans. The Core Strategy was adopted in February 2012 and the Allocations Plan in June 2018, and the council has tested its supply against the government's standard method since June 2023, five years after the Allocations Plan.
A plan started again. Full Council withdrew the draft Local Plan 2025 to 2045 on 30 June 2026, and work on a new plan to 2046 began that July.

Forest of Dean District in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, its latest five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
128%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
1.93 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the standard method, 600 homes a year. Stated by Forest of Dean District Council in its Authority Monitoring Report 2024 to 2025, which gives a range of 1.81 to 1.93 years; its Housing Delivery Note for the same five years states a minimum of 2.2 years.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,270
of 991 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
February 2012
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Draft Local Plan 2025 to 2045 set aside June 2026; Local Plan 2046 started, adoption timetabled for May 2029
Checked source

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.

Ahead on Delivery, Short on Land

The delivery test looks back over April 2022 to March 2025, and the 991 homes it asked of the district sit in line with the older need figure of about 330 a year. The five-year supply looks forward, and since the standard method changed in December 2024 it has been measured against about 600 homes a year, close to double. The council's Housing Delivery Note 2024 to 2025 sets out the sum for the five years from April 2025:

Source: Forest of Dean District Council, Housing Delivery Note 2024 to 2025.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly need used	600 homes, from the standard method as revised in December 2024
Five years of need	3,000 homes
Buffer	5%, taking the five-year requirement to 3,150 homes
Deliverable homes counted	1,253, described as the minimum available
Result stated in the note	A minimum of 2.2 years

The note's own figures do not quite reach its headline. Worked through, 1,253 homes against 3,150 comes to just under two years, and an earlier paragraph of the same note counts 1,175 deliverable homes, which is less again. The monitoring report settles on 1.93 years, within a range it gives as starting from 1.81 years. On any of these readings the gap to five years is more than 1,800 homes, and the council accepts that it cannot show five years.

Building has also slowed. The note records 517 net completions in 2022/23, 431 in 2023/24 and 327 in 2024/25, when Lydney saw 89, Newent 61, Coleford 35 and Cinderford 28.

What the Shortfall Means for a Field

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework allows homes beyond a settlement's boundary where unmet need is evidenced, and a five-year supply shortfall is one recognised way of evidencing it. It is not an automatic pass. The land has to sit well against the town or village beside it, and roads, schools and drainage must be able to take the homes. Inside settlement boundaries, policy S4 leans towards approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

The monitoring report, written under the previous framework, is candid about the effect: with the balance tilted towards approval, it says, this "can lead (and has led)" to homes in the open countryside.

Scale still matters. The 2026 draft expected large villages such as Blakeney, Longhope and St Briavels to take schemes of typically fewer than ten homes, and small villages such as Alvington and Aylburton typically one, two or three. That draft has gone, but a scheme far beyond those scales is hard to argue. Our page on paddocks and small sites covers the smaller end.

A Draft for 12,080 Homes, Withdrawn in June 2026

The version of the plan consulted on in summer 2024 ran to 2041. After the December 2024 changes, the revised draft plan, whose consultation ran from January to March 2026, covered 2025 to 2045 and a need of 12,080 homes, or 604 a year. It proposed:

Source: Forest of Dean District Council, Revised Draft Local Plan 2025 to 2045 (February 2026), policies RLP.5 and RLP.6. None of these proposals is part of a plan the council is now taking forward.
Location	What the withdrawn draft proposed
Lydney	About 1,800 homes, mainly east of the town with about 450 to the west
Newent	About 1,000 homes on mixed-use land adjoining the south east of the town
Coleford	About 700 homes, around 260 of them on existing sites
Cinderford	About 635 homes, including sites already allocated or permitted
Beachley Barracks	About 600 homes later in the plan period, noting that the army's decision to leave in 2032 might be reviewed
Two new communities	About 4,500 homes later in the plan period, at Glynchbrook in Redmarley parish and west of the Severn in Churcham parish
Villages	About 2,325 homes, around 18% of all allocations

The consultation drew more than 3,600 responses. At Full Council on 30 June 2026, councillors voted to set the plan aside and start a new one under the government's gateway process. The council cited national timetabling constraints, residents' concerns and dated evidence.

What the Withdrawal Changes

All land now waits on a new plan, prepared under the local plan regulations that came into force in March 2026, which the council expects to adopt by late spring 2029. Until then the Core Strategy of 2012 and the 2018 Allocations Plan remain the development plan, with a supply short of five years. The council itself warned that without a current plan the district is more exposed to speculative schemes and appeal decisions.

Woodland, Two Rivers and a Protected Estuary

The Wye Valley National Landscape

The Wye Valley National Landscape partnership names Forest of Dean District Council as one of three councils whose planning policies take account of the need to conserve and enhance the area's natural beauty. The 2026 draft gave priority to conserving the landscape within the National Landscape and the Crown Forest areas. National policy allows major development inside the boundary only in exceptional circumstances.

The Estuary, the Bat Sites and the Wye

The council's habitats assessment, prepared for the 2026 draft, screens six protected sites, from the Severn Estuary and Walmore Common to the River Wye and the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Bat Sites. It records that the district works with a 6.2 kilometre zone for judging homes that could add visitor pressure on the estuary. Under the council's interim bat guidance of July 2021, land near roosts falls into very sensitive, highly sensitive or sensitive locations, each with its own survey approach. The assessment also records concerns about nutrients in the Wye, especially phosphate. None of this rules a site out, but each calls for surveys, which are part of the planning cost we carry.

Flood Risk Along the Severn

The 2026 draft treated land at risk of flooding as unsuitable for almost all forms of development, with allowances for rising sea levels and more extreme floods. Along the Severn, the flood map is our first check. Our guide to flood risk and development land explains the tests.

The Land We Look for in Forest of Dean District

Fields of 2 acres or more on the edge of Lydney, Newent, Coleford or Cinderford.
Land beside the major villages, such as Bream, Mitcheldean, Newnham on Severn or Tutshill and Sedbury, at a scale that suits them.
Larger holdings around the four towns that could help shape the new plan to 2046.
Former yards, depots and commercial sites within or beside a settlement.
Land mostly in Flood Zone 1, clear of the Severn flood plain.

Land inside the Wye Valley National Landscape or the Crown Forest is harder, and we will say so plainly. For the rest, we pay for the surveys, the landscape and ecology work and the application, under an option whose price is fixed on signing, above the land's present worth. Farming carries on as normal meanwhile, and should permission not come, the land remains yours with nothing owed to us. Our farmland page explains what we look for in a holding.

The Forest of Dean on the Road to a 2046 Plan

The New Plan Timetable

The council gave notice on 6 July 2026 that it had begun the Forest of Dean District Local Plan 2046 and published this local plan timetable:

From the Forest of Dean Local Plan 2046 timetable (6 July 2026). Dates are the council's and may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Scoping consultation	21 September to 12 October 2026, postponed
Gateway 1 self-assessment published	6 November 2026
Consultation on plan content and evidence	1 February to 15 March 2027
Gateway 2	14 September 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	25 February to 22 April 2028
Gateway 3	26 July 2028
Submission for examination	6 September 2028
Adoption	6 May 2029

The scoping consultation did not start on 21 September as planned. The council says it will go to Cabinet on 8 October and Full Council on 22 October 2026, and that the timetable is being reviewed, so every later date may shift. The order will not: the consultation on content and evidence is where the council's thinking on locations will first show, and land with its evidence ready by then is best placed. Our call for sites and local plans guide follows a site from submission to allocation.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, measured the district against the older, lower need, and at 128% none of its consequences applies. Under 95% the council would owe an action plan, under 85% its supply sum would carry a 20% buffer, and under 75% policy S5 would treat unmet need as evidenced even if supply recovered.

One Council for Gloucestershire, on Hold

On 16 July 2026 the government decided on a single unitary council for Gloucestershire, replacing the county, city, borough and district councils from 1 April 2028. On 7 September it paused the Gloucestershire proposals as part of a national review, with the May 2027 polls to be fought on the present council map. For now the district council remains the planning authority and plan-maker.

What This Means for Timing

Land on a town or village edge that meets the S5 tests can be looked at now, while supply is short and no new plan carries weight.
Larger holdings around Lydney, Newent, Coleford or Cinderford belong in the new plan, with evidence ready for the consultation on content in early 2027.
Land near Beachley or the two sites once proposed for new communities is a longer game that depends on what the new plan chooses.

Questions About Land in Forest of Dean District

The district built more homes than it had to. Why would the council approve more?

Because the delivery test and the land supply measure different things. The test looks back at the older, lower need, while the supply looks ahead at about 600 homes a year, and on that measure the council's monitoring report finds 1.93 years. National policy treats that shortfall as evidence of unmet need.

My field near Newent was proposed in the draft plan. Does that still count?

No. The proposed allocations fell with the draft when councillors withdrew it in June 2026. It can be put forward to the new plan, and if it meets the S5 tests it may not need to wait.

The council withdrew its plan. Is that good or bad for my land?

It depends where the land is. Sites the draft chose have lost that support for now, while land it left out is no longer competing with a fixed list. Meanwhile supply is short and no new plan carries weight, which gives a well placed application room.

Can anything be built in the Wye Valley National Landscape?

Small, well designed schemes in or beside villages can be possible. Major development inside the boundary needs exceptional circumstances, so a large field there is rarely a strong case. We tell you which applies after our review.

Do the bat and estuary rules mean my land cannot be developed?

No. They mean surveys, and sometimes a contribution or a change of layout, depending on how close the land is to the protected sites. We commission and pay for that work as part of the planning.

Tell Us About Your Land in Forest of Dean District

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.

About your land

Which council area is the land in?

Own land in more than one area? Choose one here and tell us about the others below.

Postcode or nearest village *

Approximate size in acres

About 4.0 hectares. Not sure? Give your best guess.

Current use

Where is it?

Access

Land Registry title number (optional)

Your details

We need a phone number or an email address, whichever you prefer.

Your name *

Phone

Best time to call (optional)

Anything else we should know? (optional)

We use your details only to reply about your land. We do not contact the council or anyone else about it without your agreement. See our privacy notice.

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.