Gloucestershire council area

Selling Land in Gloucester

Gloucester is a compact city on the Severn, hemmed in by the M5 and the floodplain, with much of its growth planned in the neighbouring boroughs. It delivered 63% of the homes it needed, and a new joint plan with Cheltenham and Tewkesbury is being prepared. Here the city rewards small, well chosen sites more than big fields.

Free review of your land in Gloucester

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

Gloucester at a Glance

Gloucester City Council covers a city that its own City Plan describes as constrained by the M5 to the east and the floodplain to the west, with the Severn running along its western edge. Inside those limits sit the historic centre, the docks and the canal, and neighbourhoods from Kingsholm, Longlevens and Hucclecote to Barnwood, Barton, Tredworth, Podsmead and Matson. The City Plan put the population at about 129,000 in 2018 and growing year on year.

Below the 75% line. A 63% result in the Housing Delivery Test 2025 means the city is treated as having evidenced unmet housing need.
Two layers of plan. The Joint Core Strategy with Cheltenham and Tewkesbury was adopted in 2017, and the Gloucester City Plan, which runs to 2031, followed in January 2023.
Growth split across boundaries. Between 2011 and March 2023, 6,159 homes were completed in the city and a further 1,484 on Tewkesbury borough sites counted towards Gloucester's need.
A new joint plan. The Strategic and Local Plan, shared with Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, will replace both the Joint Core Strategy and the City Plan once it is adopted.

With so little open land inside the boundary, the city's low result is felt mostly on previously developed land and the few undeveloped pockets that remain.

Gloucester in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
63%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
1,278
of 2,014 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
January 2023
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Updated
Gloucester City Plan adopted January 2023; joint strategic plan in preparation
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.

Growth Beyond the City Boundary

The City Plan records that the Joint Core Strategy expected about 35% of Gloucester's homes to be built in urban extensions in Tewkesbury borough, with further development south of the city in Stroud district. The council's 2023 land supply statement names the Tewkesbury sites that count towards the city's need, including Innsworth and Twigworth to the north and South Churchdown and North Brockworth to the east. The Strategic and Local Plan will set the next round.

At its second stage of consultation, which ran to 16 January 2026, the three councils put their combined need at about 43,000 homes, including around 14,000 for Gloucester. Their aim was to publish a draft plan by the summer of 2026, and local reporting in April 2026 expected the final submission in October or November.

Why the Shortfall Is Quoted as 25,000 and as 23,000

Two figures circulate for the land still to be found. In December 2025, local reporting of the consultation said existing permissions and allocations covered 18,000 homes, leaving land for 25,000 more to be found. By April 2026, the Raikes Journal put the sites found so far at about 20,000 and the shortfall at about 23,000. Both work from the same total of roughly 43,000, so the likeliest explanation is that more supply was counted between the two stages as permissions and evidence came in. The direction of travel is the same in both: the same April report says the vast majority of the new homes will be built in Tewkesbury borough because Cheltenham and Gloucester do not have enough land.

Where your land is	Which council decides	What that usually means
Inside the city boundary	Gloucester City Council	The shortage of homes weighs heavily, but most land is built up or in the Severn floodplain.
On the northern or eastern edge, in Tewkesbury borough	Tewkesbury Borough Council	Its own figures apply, and the joint plan is the main route.
On the southern or south western edge, in Stroud district	Stroud District Council	Stroud's own plan and figures apply, not Gloucester's.

How each of those councils is performing is set out on our Gloucestershire page.

Brownfield Land and the City Centre

The council wants more people living in the centre. In October 2024 it secured £700,000 from the government's Brownfield Land Release Fund to prepare the former Wessex House site on Great Western Road for around 45 homes, work that includes decontamination and archaeological investigation. It is part of an aim to create about 200 homes on city centre sites, including land beside the Whitefriars apartments, 67 to 69 London Road, Spread Eagle Court on Northgate Street and 20 to 26 The Oxbode.

For private landowners, that signals a council that wants empty and underused land turned into homes. Inside the city, national policy S4 sets a strong default: homes within a settlement get permission unless the harm clearly and substantially outweighs the good they do. On an urban plot in Gloucester, four things usually decide the outcome:

Archaeology. The City Plan speaks of nearly two thousand years of intense urban activity, and even the council's own Wessex House site needs archaeological investigation. An evaluation is often needed before a decision, and we pay for it.
Flood risk. Any site near the river or its tributaries needs a flood check from the very start.
Heritage. Explaining why it sets no minimum housing densities, the City Plan points to over 700 listed buildings and almost total coverage by conservation areas, each with its own character. Design has to respect them.
Access and parking. Narrow streets make the way in the deciding point on many backland plots.

Our brownfield land and yards page shows the sort of urban sites we buy.

If the Yard Is Still in Use

Many of the yards and workshops we look at in Gloucester are still trading, and that is not a problem. Surveys are arranged around your working day, trial pits and archaeological trenches are backfilled, and the land stays yours and in use until the purchase completes. Where a tenant or another business occupies part of the site, when and how it will be vacated is agreed at the outset. Our guide to tenancies and vacant possession explains how existing leases are dealt with.

Living Beside the Severn

The Severn defines Gloucester. The City Plan describes the river running along the western edge of the city with various tributaries running into it, and says that as a result some areas are subject to flood risk, particularly to the north, west and south west. It also plans for a wetter future, citing projections of winters up to 42% wetter with more frequent flooding, and its policy E4 requires sustainable drainage in new development. Alney Island, on the river, is one of the green spaces the plan values for leisure.

Where land is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, the council first applies the sequential test: could these homes go on land at lower risk? In a city with so little spare land, layout does much of the work: homes on the higher ground, gardens, open space and drainage on the lower parts, and a safe route in and out during a flood. Our guide to flood risk explains how the tests are applied.

Costs That Come With Every New Home

Every new home in Gloucester carries some fixed costs before a brick is laid. The whole city lies within 15.4 km of the Cotswold Beechwoods, a Special Area of Conservation most of which lies in Stroud district, so each new home pays a strategic mitigation contribution, currently £771.79, plus legal and administration fees. Section 106 obligations, any Community Infrastructure Levy and biodiversity net gain come on top.

Why Cheltenham Quotes £673

The same mitigation strategy covers Gloucester's neighbours, and Cheltenham's guidance still gives £673 per home. The difference is not a separate scheme. Gloucester's page explains that the charges rise with inflation on Natural England's instruction, and its figure is the indexed one. Cheltenham's page appears to show the original, unindexed rate. On land in Gloucester, we work from the higher, current figure.

All of these come out of what the land can support, which is why we work them out at the start and build them into the fixed price we agree with you. Our guide to Section 106 and CIL shows how the main contributions are calculated.

The Kind of Land We Look for in Gloucester

Yards, garages, workshops and commercial buildings in Tredworth, Barton, Kingsholm and elsewhere in the city.
Empty or underused land in and around the city centre.
Larger gardens and backland plots with a sensible access.
Undeveloped pockets inside the city that sit above the floodplain.
Land within reach of Gloucester station.
Land on the city edge, where we first check which council it belongs to.

If most of your land sits in the Severn floodplain, the prospects are narrower, and our review will tell you so without dressing it up. Where a site does suit homes, we take on the whole planning process, from the first survey to any appeal, at our own cost.

Questions From Landowners in Gloucester

Gloucester is at 63%. Does that help land just outside the city?

Not directly. The result applies within the city boundary. Most edge land is in Tewkesbury or Stroud, where that council's figures and plans decide the case.

Part of my site is in Flood Zone 2. Is it worth pursuing?

Often it is. The question is how much of the site is at lower risk and whether a layout can keep the homes out of the higher zones. We look at the Environment Agency's mapping and the council's own flood evidence before anything else.

Will the new joint plan make a difference to land inside the city?

It will set the housing figures and many of the policies that decide applications for years to come. For land in the city, policy S4 already applies, so a good site does not need to wait for the new plan.

What is the Cotswold Beechwoods payment, and who pays it?

It is a set sum per new home that funds rangers, signage and fencing at the Beechwoods and alternative green space elsewhere, so the woods are not harmed by extra visitors. It is paid by the development, and it is one of the costs we allow for when we assess your land.

We own a small yard behind shops in the centre. Is that too small for you?

Not necessarily. Rear yards and underused plots in the centre can suit a small number of homes, and the council is actively backing city centre living. Access, heritage and archaeology usually matter more than size.

Tell Us About Your Land in Gloucester

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

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.