Selling Land in Stroud District

• Fields that sit well against the edge of Stonehouse, Cam, Dursley, Wotton-under-Edge, Berkeley or the larger villages.
• Former mills, yards and workshops along the Stroud valleys.
• Land on the Gloucester side of the district that relates properly to Hardwicke or Hunts Grove.
• Larger holdings that could be put forward to the new plan through its call for sites.

Land on the high Cotswold plateau or the open estuary levels is not ruled out, but the route is narrower. We will tell you plainly what we think, and the first review costs you nothing. Our how it works page sets out each step.

• 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.

At 85%, Stroud is clear of the 75% line that most commentary fixes on. That can make the district look closed to land outside its settlements. It is not, because national policy gives a second way to show unmet need.

The August 2026 NPPF, through its policy S5, lets homes beyond a settlement boundary be approved where unmet need is evidenced, the site relates well to the place beside it, and infrastructure can take the extra homes. A score below 75% is one way need is treated as proven. A shortfall in the five-year supply of deliverable sites is another, and it is the one that applies here.

How the Council's Own Figures Show the Gap

The January 2025 update set a five-year requirement of 4,144 homes, blending the older figure of 620 a year with the newer 820, plus a 5% buffer on the newer figure, and found 2,683 deliverable homes: 3.24 years.

The picture was very different not long ago. The council's November 2023 statement recorded 5.05 years of supply and a 2021 Housing Delivery Test result of 161%. Part of the change is arithmetic: the 2023 statement measured against 641 homes a year, the 2025 update against a blend rising to 820, and the council now quotes 846.

Around Stonehouse, Cam and Dursley, the reasons for the fall matter less to a landowner than its effect: the council's own figures now supply the evidence of unmet need that S5 asks for.

Land Inside the Towns and Villages

Policy S4 covers sites within settlements, where homes should be approved unless the harm would substantially outweigh what the scheme brings. Here that covers old mills and yards along the valleys as well as gardens and paddocks inside villages, and the council says it will look to brownfield land first. Our page on brownfield sites and yards explains how we assess them, and the wider policy change is set out in our guide to the 2026 NPPF.

Much of the supply rests on a few large sites, so slippage on one shows at once in the five-year figure.

For an owner of a smaller site, that dependence is part of the case, because homes that can be built without waiting on a large scheme add to the supply directly.

The Housing Delivery Test is published yearly, and the Housing Delivery Test 2025, covering April 2022 to March 2025, was issued on 17 August 2026. Stroud's 85% puts it in the band that needs an action plan and nothing more. If the next result fell below 85%, a 20% buffer would be added to the five-year requirement, widening a supply gap that is already large. Under 75%, the score itself would count as proof of unmet need for S5 purposes. Reaching 95% would end the action plan, yet leave the supply gap untouched. We have not found a published 2025/26 completions figure, so we would not guess at the next result.

A January 2025 Supply Figure and a Plan for 2028

The January 2025 update, at 3.24 years, is the latest statement the council has published, and it does not say when the next is due. Any new one will be measured wholly against the higher annual figure, with none of the older 620 blended in. The council's own April 2026 report on the new plan warns that without an updated plan it is unlikely to maintain a five-year supply, so for well placed land outside the settlements the shortfall is likely to remain the main argument until the new plan is adopted.

The council's April 2026 report sets out the new plan under the government's 30 month process: the first gateway self-assessment by 31 October 2026, the Planning Inspectorate's second gateway check in early to mid 2027, an examination readiness check in late 2027, and submission, examination and adoption in 2028. The next public consultation is due in 2027. The June 2025 Local Development Scheme pointed to adoption in 2029, but it predates the council's decision to follow the faster national timetable, so the April 2026 dates are the ones to work to.

On 16 July 2026 the government chose a single unitary council, to be called Gloucestershire Council, with shadow elections on 6 May 2027 and the new council taking over on 1 April 2028. On 7 September 2026 the government indicated that reorganisation is being paused and reviewed, and the councils' joint website says the May 2027 elections will go ahead on existing boundaries meanwhile. The April 2026 report says reorganisation is no reason to delay the plan, as plan-making would pass to any new authority.

An Application Now, the New Plan for Larger Land

Two routes are open at once: an application for land that meets the S5 tests while supply is short, and the new plan for larger land during 2026 and 2027. Neither waits on reorganisation. Our note on how land gets into a local plan walks through each stage.