Hampshire council area

Selling Land in Fareham

Fareham has no Green Belt, a local plan adopted in 2023 and a delivery result of 60%. What decides most sites here is something else: the strategic gaps between its towns, the protected Solent shore and the new community of Welborne taking shape north of the M27.

Free review of your land in Fareham

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Fareham at a Glance

Fareham Borough Council covers the town of Fareham and, in the words of its local plan, the other main settlements of Portchester, the Western Wards, Lower Swanwick, Whiteley, Stubbington, Hill Head, Funtley and Titchfield. The M27 crosses the borough, with junctions 9 to 11 serving it. It is compact, about 30 square miles, and its three main rivers are the Meon, the Hamble and the Wallington.

60% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025. The council built 745 homes against a requirement of 1,233, so it is treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy.
No Green Belt, but two strategic gaps. The adopted plan keeps open the Meon Gap, between Fareham and Stubbington and the Western Wards, and the gap between Fareham and Bridgemary on one side and Stubbington and Lee-on-the-Solent on the other.
A recent plan. The Fareham Local Plan 2037 was adopted on 5 April 2023 and sits alongside the Welborne Plan of June 2015.
A protected coast. The Solent's Special Protection Areas, Special Areas of Conservation and Ramsar sites, and the wader and Brent goose sites that support them, each have their own policy in the plan.

For a landowner, Fareham is a borough where the case for more homes is already accepted but the space to put them is tight. Most open land sits in a gap, a river valley or close to the protected coast. The question here is rarely whether the council needs homes. It is whether a particular field can take them without closing a gap that the council has worked hard to keep.

Fareham in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
60%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
745
of 1,233 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
April 2023
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

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.

How Unmet Need and the Gaps Are Weighed

With no Green Belt in the borough, a field outside the urban edge of Stubbington, Portchester or the Western Wards can rely on the 60% result through the shortfall route in policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework. The site has to sit naturally against one of those settlements, with roads, drainage and schools able to take the extra homes. Across much of the Home Counties, where the Green Belt covers most open land, that route barely exists.

It does not make the strategic gaps disappear. They are local plan designations rather than national ones, so the harm to a gap is weighed against the benefit of homes the borough is short of, rather than treated as a bar. Where a site sits within a gap, and how much of the gap would remain open, usually decides the outcome. Our guide to the 2026 planning framework sets out the national tests in full.

The Order in Which We Look at an Edge-of-Town Field

Gap or no gap. Land outside both strategic gaps starts from a stronger position. Land inside one needs a layout that keeps the gap readable on the ground, often by holding homes to the side nearest existing development and leaving the rest open.
Relationship to the town. We look at how the field sits against the existing edge: roads, boundaries, levels and whether new homes would read as part of the place.
Nitrogen and birds. Every net new home needs mitigation for both, and the scheme has to show how it will be secured before permission is granted.
Soil and landscape. The adopted countryside policy considers the loss of the best agricultural land, and the plan identifies Areas of Special Landscape Quality, so both are checked early rather than discovered late.

Welborne, the 2023 Plan and What Comes Next

Welborne is the largest single development the borough has seen: about 6,000 homes south of Wickham, with a district centre, neighbourhood centres, a secondary school and three primary schools. The first residents moved into homes built by Thakeham in January 2026, as The News reported, with around 700 homes planned in the first phase over four to five years and the whole community built out over some 25 years. Its pace is tied to the motorway: Hampshire County Council records a planning restriction that limits occupation to 1,160 homes until the improved junction 10 of the M27 is open to traffic. The rebuilt junction began opening in phases on 14 September 2026, with the westbound off-slip, the underpass and four new roundabouts, and the county expects the remaining slip roads to follow in the autumn.

Welborne matters to other landowners for two reasons. It is a large part of the council's housing supply, so any slowing of building there shows up in the delivery figures that the Housing Delivery Test measures. And it shows the kind of growth the council prefers: planned, with its own schools, centre and roads, rather than a scatter of small estates.

The Fareham Local Plan 2037 replaced the Core Strategy and the Development Sites and Policies plan and allocates most of the remaining growth, including land south of Longfield Avenue (allocation HA55). On 11 March 2025 the council's Executive adopted a Local Development Scheme setting out the timetable for a replacement Fareham Local Plan. For land that is not allocated, that replacement is the next chance to be considered through the plan, while the delivery result gives a route through a planning application in the meantime.

In Fareham either route needs a nitrogen budget, a gap and landscape assessment and, north of the town, a highway case that allows for Welborne's traffic. Under our option agreement the price is agreed at the start and all of that is commissioned and paid for by us, at our own risk. Each stage, from first review to completion, appears on our how it works page.

Nitrogen, Birds and the Solent Shore

Fareham's coast is part of the Solent's network of protected sites. The adopted plan deals with them through policy NE3 on recreational disturbance, policy NE4 on water quality and policy NE5 on the Solent wader and Brent goose sites, and together they add work and cost to every housing scheme.

Water quality. Permission depends on showing that nutrients from the extra waste water will not harm the protected sites. In practice that means a nitrogen budget for the scheme and mitigation to balance it, often bought as credits.
Recreational disturbance. Bird Aware Solent notes that most visits to the Solent's protected areas are made by people living within 5.6 kilometres of them, and new homes in that zone pay towards its strategy. From 1 April 2026 the charge runs from £501 for a one-bedroom home to £1,299 for a home with five or more bedrooms, updated each year in line with the Retail Price Index.
Biodiversity net gain. Schemes also need to show a 10% gain in habitat value, which can take land out of a layout or require habitat off site. Our biodiversity net gain guide explains how it is measured.

These costs are paid out of the value of a scheme, and they are one reason a field can support fewer homes, or less value per acre, than its size suggests. They are also well understood locally. The nitrogen budget, ecology surveys and mitigation strategy are reports we commission and pay for as part of the planning work.

Valleys, Hills, Stations and the Coast

Local factor	What it means for a site
The Meon valley	Identified in the adopted plan as an Area of Special Landscape Quality. Land on the valley sides is judged on how it is seen from across the valley.
The Hamble valley	Another Area of Special Landscape Quality, beside the protected estuary. Layouts here often keep the lower ground open.
Portsdown Hill and the coastal plain	Both are also named as special landscape areas, and on Portsdown Hill development below the ridge can be seen from the top.
Stations at Fareham, Portchester and Swanwick	Policy L3 supports higher density homes within walking distance of well-connected stations. The plan notes that the three stations connect the borough to London and the wider rail network. The smaller stations need a closer look at the service.
The M27	Noise and air quality shape layouts beside the motorway, and highway capacity is tested on every larger scheme.
Tidal flood risk	Low-lying land on the coast and along the estuary edges needs checking against the flood maps. See our flood risk guide for how the sequential test works.

A field below Portsdown Hill, a slope in the Meon valley and a paddock near the coast each start from a different one of these rows, and a single site can meet two or three. We work through them in our desktop review so that you know which applies to yours before anyone walks the land.

Where We Look in Fareham

Land on the edges of Fareham, Portchester, Stubbington, Titchfield and the Western Wards that lies outside the strategic gaps.
Fields inside a gap that are already enclosed by roads, housing or other development, so the gap's openness is limited.
Former commercial yards, depots and buildings with a lawful non-farming use.
Land within walking distance of Fareham, Portchester or Swanwick station.
Larger holdings where part of the land could provide nitrogen mitigation or open space for homes on the rest.
Sites with a road frontage or a clear route to one.

If your land sits at the narrowest point of a gap, we will tell you so. Our letters are about specific sites we have already looked at, and our reviews start from the planning position of your own field.

Questions About Land in Fareham

My field is in the Meon Gap. Is there any point in talking?

Sometimes. The gap is a local plan policy rather than Green Belt, and with the council at 60% it is weighed against the need for homes. Land already enclosed by development has a realistic case in some places. Land at the narrowest point between two settlements is much harder, and we will say which applies to yours.

Does Welborne mean the council no longer needs my land?

No. Welborne is building out over many years, and the council's delivery result of 60% already reflects the homes completed there. Well-placed land elsewhere is still needed alongside it.

Will the nitrogen rules stop a small scheme on my land?

Not usually. Policy NE4 asks the scheme to show that its waste water will not harm the Solent, and the cost of balancing it can be worked out at the start. The nitrogen budget is one of the reports we prepare and pay for.

My land is close to Portchester station. Does the station policy help?

It can, but it depends on how frequent the service is and where the site sits. We check the station, the walking route and the service as part of our review.

The council is preparing a replacement plan. Should I wait for it?

Not necessarily. The delivery result gives a route through a planning application now, and the replacement plan gives another later. Our agreements continue while any planning application or appeal is being decided, and you keep using your land until completion.

Tell Us About Your Land in Fareham

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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.