Gloucestershire council area

Selling Land in South Gloucestershire

Checked on 30 September 2026

South Gloucestershire wraps around the north and east of Bristol, builds more homes than the government asks of it, and still reports less than five years of housing land. Its Core Strategy dates from December 2013, and a new Local Plan running to 2041, which takes a small slice of the Bristol and Bath Green Belt, has been under examination since October 2025.

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In short

We buy land in South Gloucestershire and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

South Gloucestershire can show 3.93 years of housing land, short of the five years national policy expects. That shortfall is evidence of need which decisions must weigh, so a well placed field next to a town or village can make a case outside the local plan. It is not a guarantee. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from December 2013, and a new one was submitted for examination in October 2025.

We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.

The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.

South Gloucestershire 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
138%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.93 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Stated by South Gloucestershire Council, in its monitoring report for the year to March 2025, for the five years it labels 2024/25 to 2028/29.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
5,612
of 4,071 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
December 2013
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
New Local Plan 2026 to 2041 submitted for examination on 24 October 2025; hearings began on 19 May 2026, and the council's Local Plan page, checked in September 2026, listed a further hearing session for 7 October 2026; the council's Local Plan Delivery Programme, covering October 2025 to October 2028, put the inspectors' report in October 2026 and adoption in December 2026
Checked source

See how South Gloucestershire compares with the other 166 councils we cover

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 Land We Look for in South Gloucestershire

Fields on the edge of Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury or Charfield that sit outside the Green Belt and have good access.
Land near the villages the new plan takes out of the Green Belt, such as Alveston, Almondsbury and Iron Acton.
Green Belt fields on the Bristol fringe that are enclosed by roads, the railway or existing homes and do little to keep towns apart.
Yards, depots and former commercial sites anywhere in the district, including in the Green Belt.
Paddocks and plots inside the towns and villages, where policy S4 favours homes unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Larger holdings that could be put forward to a future review of the new plan.

Duck Street showed that a village site must let people reach shops, schools and work without relying on a car. We prepare and pay for that evidence, with heritage, ecology and drainage, under an option priced at the outset above what the land is worth today. Meanwhile you carry on using it, and if no permission comes, it stays yours with nothing owed. Smaller parcels are covered on our paddocks and small sites page.

The planning detail in full

Bristol's Northern and Eastern Edge, and the Towns Beyond It

South Gloucestershire Council is a unitary council, so it writes the local plan and decides planning applications itself. About 306,000 people live here. The largest places adjoin Bristol: Kingswood and Emersons Green to the east, and Bradley Stoke, Stoke Gifford, Filton and Patchway to the north, around Bristol Parkway station. Beyond them are the towns of Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Thornbury, and villages reaching the Severn estuary in the west and the Cotswold scarp in the east. The M4 and M5 meet at the Almondsbury Interchange.

Green Belt on the Bristol side. The council's new plan records that 40% of the district is Green Belt, including the areas with the closest links to Bristol. The other 60% lies outside it.
Building above its target. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 5,612 homes built against 4,071 required, a result of 138%. The council's own monitoring records 2,204 net new homes in 2024/25.
Still short of land. The council's latest figure is 3.93 years, so land beyond the settlements and outside the Green Belt can point to a shortfall, which counts as evidence of unmet need to be weighed.
An old plan and a new one in examination. The Core Strategy is 12 years old; its replacement was submitted on 24 October 2025.
A new town proposal on the old airfield. The government's draft New Towns Programme includes Brabazon, on the former Filton Airfield.

2,204 Homes in a Year, and Still Under Five Years of Land

Passing the delivery test does not mean holding five years of land. The council's 2025 monitoring report, covering the year to March 2025, sets its calculation out plainly:

Source: South Gloucestershire Council, 2025 Authority's Monitoring Report, table 6.6.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Deliverable homes identified over five years (labelled 2024/25 to 2028/29)	7,029
Local housing need each year (standard method)	1,702
Buffer	5%, for choice and competition in the market for land
Yearly requirement with buffer	1,787
Result	3.93 years

The report uses the standard method because, in its words, the Core Strategy is now more than five years old. The inspectors examining the new plan had asked in December 2025 for housing land supply data for the year to March 2025.

Three Published Figures, All Short of Five Years

The council's 2024 monitoring report, covering the year to March 2024, counted 7,879 deliverable homes against 1,786 a year and found 4.41 years. At the Duck Street appeal in Tytherington, heard in August 2025, the council put its supply at 4.36 years and the developer at 3.97, and both sides agreed it was short of five. The 2025 report counts 7,029 homes against 1,787 a year and finds 3.93 years.

Both reports label their five years 2024/25 to 2028/29 and neither states a separate base date, so the latest figure is best read as the council's most recent count, for the year to March 2025, not a position at a named date. The yearly requirement barely moves between them. What changed is the supply: 850 fewer homes are now counted as deliverable. Gaps like the one argued at Duck Street usually come from disagreement over which sites will deliver within the five years.

For a landowner the conclusion is the same whichever figure is used: all are below five years. The size of the gap affects how much weight a decision maker gives the shortfall.

What Happened at Duck Street, Tytherington

The appeal shows what a shortfall is worth here. A developer sought up to 75 homes and a community orchard on land outside Tytherington's settlement boundary. The inspector's decision of 30 September 2025 accepted that the council could not show five years of land and applied the tilted balance under paragraph 11(d) of the framework. He still dismissed the appeal. The site conflicted with Core Strategy policies CS5 and CS34 and policy PSP40, bus services to the village rested on trials, and a conservation area and a listed building would be harmed.

The 2013 Core Strategy and Its New Neighbourhoods

The Core Strategy planned for 28,355 homes between 2006 and 2027. It placed its largest new neighbourhoods on the Bristol fringe and released two areas of Green Belt in the North Fringe, west of the M32 and west of the A4018 at Cribbs Causeway. It also said the council remained in principle opposed to significantly reducing the Green Belt for housing. The main sites were:

From the South Gloucestershire Core Strategy 2006 to 2027.
New neighbourhood or town site	Homes planned on the site	Policy
Cribbs and Patchway	About 5,700	CS26
East of Harry Stoke	2,000	CS27
Emersons Green East, with a 25 hectare science park	About 2,400	CS29
North Yate	Up to 3,000	CS31
Thornbury, at Park Farm and Morton Way North	About 800	Core Strategy, Thornbury section

The Policies, Sites and Places Plan, adopted in November 2017, holds the detailed policies used on applications, among them PSP40, which the Duck Street inspector read with CS5 and CS34 for land outside a village boundary. These policies on where homes go still carry weight, as Duck Street showed, but are weighed against the shortfall.

The Bristol and Bath Green Belt, and Where Grey Belt Fits

The new plan describes the Bristol and Bath Green Belt as established to limit urban sprawl and keep the areas around Bristol and Bath open. It would allow new development on 2.53% of the district's existing Green Belt, the council said when it submitted the plan, and its policy LPS1 lists villages to be taken out of the Green Belt: Alveston, Almondsbury, Easter Compton, Iron Acton, Hortham Village, Hambrook and Wick.

Green Belt land sits outside policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, the policy that backs homes past a settlement boundary once unmet need is evidenced. Grey belt is the route there instead. A field that contributes only weakly to Green Belt purposes can qualify, but homes on it still need a demonstrated need, most often shown by a supply of less than five years or a delivery result under 75%. With the supply at 3.93 years, that condition is met in South Gloucestershire today, even though the delivery result is well above every threshold.

We work through a Green Belt field in this order:

Is it still Green Belt under the new plan? Land around the villages the plan takes out of the Green Belt may be judged as ordinary countryside once the plan is adopted.
Does it keep towns apart? Stopping neighbouring towns merging is a Green Belt purpose. A field in a narrow gap between the Bristol fringe and a nearby village is harder to argue than one enclosed by roads or existing homes.
Is it previously developed? Yards, depots and lawful commercial land are treated differently from open fields. Farm buildings do not count.
Can it meet the Golden Rules? Larger schemes on released Green Belt must provide the affordable housing, infrastructure and green space national policy sets. We build that into the scheme from the start.

Our grey belt guide explains how each purpose is judged.

A Local Plan to 2041 Before Three Inspectors

The new plan went through four rounds of early consultation, the fourth, in 2024, on housing land supply and Bristol's unmet need. That matters because the West of England spatial strategy was halted, and the council's page on joint working says housing need is now met through each council's own local plan. The February 2025 publication version covers 2026 to 2041. Its policy LPS1 sets a minimum of 22,573 homes, while the plan says it shows how 24,095 will be delivered, so the policy figure is the floor and the larger figure the homes it plans for.

From the council's new Local Plan page and the inspectors' initial questions of 12 December 2025.
Stage	Date
Four rounds of early (Regulation 18) consultation	November 2020 to September 2024
Publication of the plan (Regulation 19)	28 February to 11 April 2025
Submission to the government	24 October 2025
Inspectors' initial questions	12 December 2025
Hearings began	19 May 2026
Further hearing session listed by the council	7 October 2026

The inspectors' first letter went straight to land supply. They asked the council to confirm whether the plan is meant to provide five years of deliverable sites from its intended adoption, which they put at 2027/28, and for an updated housing trajectory.

The Sites It Names

The plan's larger allocations include:

North Lyde 'ecotech' Village (policy LP6).
Carsons Green and Rockhouse Farm New Neighbourhoods (LP7).
North Warmley New Neighbourhood (LP8).
Charfield Village Extensions (LP9) and Almondsbury Village Extension (LP10).
Land at the former Filton Airfield, Brabazon (LP13).

Land beside these sites, or near the villages leaving the Green Belt, is where the plan changes most. How land left out of one plan can return at a later review is covered in our guide to calls for sites and local plans.

Brabazon, the Cotswold Edge and the Neighbours

The government's draft New Towns Programme, published on 23 March 2026, names Brabazon and the West Innovation Arc as one of seven locations and describes a new town that could reach up to 40,000 homes. It saw scope for a quick first phase, with later phases tied to transport.

In the east, the Core Strategy describes the scarp and hills of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, now the Cotswolds National Landscape, where the landscape test is stricter. In the west, the Severn estuary carries international wildlife designations and Severnside faces significant flood risk. The district borders Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset, Wiltshire, and the Gloucestershire districts of Stroud and Cotswold. Our Gloucestershire and Wiltshire pages describe the councils next door.

Awaiting the Inspectors, With a Supply Below Five Years

The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, gave South Gloucestershire 138%, and the test is annual. Below 95% a council must publish an action plan, below 85% a 20% buffer is added to its supply requirement, and below 75% unmet need is treated as evidenced under policy S5. At 138%, the argument for land here rests on supply, not delivery.

A Supply Measured Against the Standard Method Until the New Plan Is Adopted

The council reports supply in its annual monitoring report. The latest, for the year to March 2025, gives 3.93 years, and the next will cover the year to March 2026. Once a new plan is adopted, its own requirement becomes the yardstick, and the inspectors have asked whether the plan should show five years of land from adoption. If it does, the route for unallocated land narrows. Until then, a field beyond the Green Belt on the edge of Yate, Thornbury or a village can go forward under policy S5, with the shortfall counting as evidence of unmet need for the decision maker to weigh, rather than a finding made automatically.

The Timetable, in the Council's Words

The council's Local Plan Delivery Programme, covering October 2025 to October 2028, placed the hearings between April and September 2026, the inspectors' report in October 2026 and adoption in December 2026. Its new Local Plan page, checked in September 2026, listed a further hearing session for 7 October 2026 and said a consultation on the inspectors' recommended changes would follow their decision. Consulting on main modifications takes time, so adoption dates often move.

What That Means for Timing

Outside the Green Belt, now. The shortfall is live today, and an application is best made on land that is well connected, before the new plan changes the yardstick.
Near an inset village or a new allocation. The inspectors' changes settle the final boundaries, and evidence started now can be fitted to them.
Open Green Belt land. Grey belt is the route while supply is short, and a future plan review is the longer route.

Questions About Land in South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire builds more homes than its target. Why is it short of land?

The delivery test looks back at homes built over three years; the supply test looks forward at sites able to deliver in the next five. The council has built well, but its identified sites fall short against a need of over 1,700 homes a year.

The Duck Street appeal was lost despite the shortfall. Does that mean village sites never succeed?

No. The inspector gave the shortfall weight and applied the tilted balance, but found the site too dependent on uncertain bus services and harmful to the conservation area and a listed building. A site with better access and no heritage conflict would be judged differently.

My field is next to Almondsbury, which the new plan takes out of the Green Belt. What changes for me?

Possibly a great deal, but only once the plan is adopted and its boundaries are fixed. Until then the land is still Green Belt. We look at where the new boundary is drawn and which side of it your field falls.

Does the Brabazon new town make land near Cribbs Causeway or Patchway more valuable to put forward?

Not automatically. Brabazon is a planned scheme on land already identified for it. Land around it still needs its own route, through the local plan, grey belt or previously developed land, and we assess each field on that basis.

I put my land forward in the council's call for sites and it was not allocated. Is there any point now?

Yes. Land outside the Green Belt can be assessed for an application while supply is short, and land left out of this plan can be put forward to its first review. Knowing why the council passed over it is the starting point, and that is part of our free review.

What price will you pay for my land?

We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.

When would I be paid?

You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.

Tell Us About Your Land in South Gloucestershire

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, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.

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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.