Hampshire council area

Selling Land in Rushmoor

Rushmoor is a small, tightly built borough of two towns, Farnborough and Aldershot, with a local plan from February 2019 and a delivery result of 176%. Since the government's housing figure for the borough more than doubled, the council's own count of housing land has slipped to 4.74 years, and a new plan formally began on 18 September 2026.

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Two Towns, an Airport and the Home of the Army

Rushmoor Borough Council, based in Farnborough, covers just 3,905 hectares of north east Hampshire, about 30 miles south west of London. Its adopted plan describes a relatively small, highly urbanised and densely populated borough with a comparatively well defined built-up area. Farnborough holds the council offices and Farnborough Airport and is known internationally for British aerospace research, and North Camp has a district centre of its own. Aldershot, known as the home of the British Army, has the garrison to the north of its town centre and the new neighbourhood of Wellesley. Trains run from Farnborough to London Waterloo and the south coast, from Farnborough North to Reading, Guildford and Gatwick, and from Aldershot to Waterloo, Alton and Guildford.

Well ahead on delivery. The council built 1,427 homes against a requirement of 813 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 176%.
A plan now 7 years old. The Rushmoor Local Plan was adopted in February 2019 and runs to 2032.
Short of five years of land. The council finds 4.74 years of deliverable housing land at 1 April 2025.
Heathland on every side. The plan records that no part of the borough is more than five kilometres from the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area.

In Rushmoor, sites come from inside Farnborough and Aldershot far more than from their edges, and that shapes everything below.

Rushmoor 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
176%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
4.74 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, 599 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Rushmoor Borough Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,427
of 813 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
February 2019
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
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.

Short of Five Years by 164 Homes

When national policy changed in December 2024, the government's standard method lifted Rushmoor's local housing need from 265 homes a year to 599, as a March 2026 cabinet report set out. Because the plan is more than five years old, that higher figure is the one supply must be tested against. At the older figure the council's monitoring report had shown 11.2 years at April 2024. The five-year statement published in March 2026 works through the new position:

Source: Rushmoor Borough Council, Five-Year Housing Land Supply 2025 to 2030 (March 2026).
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Local housing need	598.65 homes a year, so 2,993 over five years
Buffer	5%, adding 150 homes
Five-year requirement	3,143 homes
Sites with detailed permission, outside Wellesley	1,300 homes
Wellesley	1,020 homes
Sites in the land availability assessment without permission	312 homes
Allowance for windfall sites	356 homes, less a net loss of 9 in care and similar homes
Deliverable supply	2,979 homes
Result	4.74 years

The shortfall is 164 homes, a thin margin in either direction. The cabinet report acknowledged that the change increased the risk of the presumption in favour of sustainable development applying, and in April 2026 officers told the planning committee that the presumption may apply to relevant applications.

Why the Shortfall Matters Less for Fields Than for Town Sites

In the August 2026 national framework, policy S5 treats a council's shortfall in deliverable land as evidence that need is not being met, though not as an automatic finding, and on that basis can support homes past a settlement's limits where the land relates well to the town and its roads, schools and drainage can cope. In Rushmoor that reach is narrow. The plan steers new building into the defined urban areas and strictly limits it in the surrounding countryside, and every field is within reach of the protected heaths. Inside the towns, policy S4 already favours well designed homes, allowing refusal only where the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. The shortfall adds weight on top of that, which helps a garage court, a tired office or a yard more than it helps a field.

Where Rushmoor's Homes Are Coming From

The adopted plan provides for at least 7,850 homes from 2014 to 2032: about 3,850 at Wellesley, about 1,700 elsewhere in Aldershot and about 2,300 in Farnborough. The monitoring report for 2024/25 records 501 net new homes that year, or 593 with older people's housing and student rooms, of which 97 were affordable.

Wellesley

Outline permission for 3,850 homes at Wellesley was granted in March 2014. By 31 March 2025, 1,674 had been completed, 190 of them in the last year. The supply statement expects the pace to rise, from 81 homes in 2025/26 to 309 in 2028/29. Wellesley alone accounts for about a third of the five-year supply.

The Town Centres

Aldershot. The supply counts 596 homes at The Galleries, 56 at 52 Victoria Road and 131 at Blandford House and Malta Barracks.
Farnborough Civic Quarter. The planning committee resolved in February 2023 to grant outline permission for up to 960 homes, subject to a legal agreement still unsigned at March 2025; the supply counts 95 in the first five years.
Elsewhere in Farnborough. Block 3 at Queensmead, Briarcliff House on Kingsmead, Meudon House and the station car park on Union Street each add between 56 and 99 homes.

Small windfall sites of one to four homes have supplied about 7% of completions since 2014, and the council says larger unplanned sites have made a significant contribution too. That is the gap our brownfield and yards work fills: sites nobody allocated that turn out to suit homes.

SANG Is the Scarcest Land in the Borough

Because all of Rushmoor lies within five kilometres of the heaths, the plan requires mitigation for net new homes: a payment towards Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG), which gives residents somewhere else to walk, and towards Strategic Access Management and Monitoring (SAMM). Within 400 metres of the heath, the council's strategy says new homes will not be permitted unless there are exceptional circumstances and Natural England agrees there would be no adverse effect.

The council's avoidance and mitigation strategy, updated in April 2026, shows how little capacity was left at 1 March 2026:

From the Thames Basin Heaths Avoidance and Mitigation Strategy, April 2026.
SANG	Capacity left
Blandford Woods	507 homes, for schemes in Rushmoor only
Southwood Country Park	16 homes
Rowhill	2 homes
Southwood Woodlands	None
Hawley Meadows and Blackwater Park	None

A significant share of what remains is reserved for the strategic sites, including The Galleries, Hippodrome House, Aldershot station and Farnborough Civic Quarter. The rates are set per home by bedrooms: a three-bedroom home pays £11,823.73 towards Southwood or Blandford Woods, or £21,411.48 where it relies on SANG in Hart, plus £425.78 per person for SAMM. Large schemes may be expected to provide bespoke mitigation of their own.

For a landowner, this cuts two ways. It is a real cost that we build into every appraisal from the start, as Section 106 and CIL are. And land that could never take houses may still matter: the council's call for sites asks for land for SANG and for biodiversity net gain offsetting as well as for homes.

The Airport and the Garrison

Farnborough Airport

The plan describes Farnborough as the UK's only dedicated business aviation airport, allowed up to 50,000 movements a year, with controls on the type of flying, noise, weekend flying and safety. Application 23/00794/REVPP seeks 70,000 a year, with non-weekday movements rising from 8,900 to 18,900. The April 2026 committee papers listed it as a future item, and it is still pending with no timetable. A second application, 25/00615/REV, keeps the 50,000 cap but seeks 13,500 non-weekday movements. The airport appealed it for non-determination on 19 August 2026, and the council's airport page says a public inquiry is being arranged. Land near the runway and flight paths is judged partly on noise and safety, which we check first.

Military Land

The plan gives the Aldershot Military Town a policy of its own, SP9. Barracks and other defence land the Army releases can come forward as previously developed land, as Blandford House and Malta Barracks already show in the supply.

The Land We Look for in Rushmoor

Commercial yards, workshops, depots and garage courts in Farnborough and Aldershot.
Offices, shops and other buildings that no longer suit their use.
Large gardens and backland plots with room for a proper access.
Sites within walking distance of Farnborough, Farnborough North or Aldershot station.
Land more than 400 metres from the heath that could serve as SANG or habitat for a wider scheme.

On an urban site the work is often design, parking, noise and the heathland payment rather than landscape, and we pay for all of it. We agree a fixed option price with you at the start, set above what the site is worth today, and you carry on using it. If permission is not granted, you keep the site and owe us nothing. Our page on the land we buy covers the range of sites we take on.

Rushmoor as Its 30-Month Plan Clock Starts

A Plan Under the New System

Rushmoor published its notice to begin a new plan on 18 May 2026, ran a scoping consultation that closed on 31 July, started the 30-month preparation period on 18 September 2026 and published its Gateway 1 self-assessment on 21 September. The council's plan timetable, last revised on 21 September 2026, sets out what follows:

From Rushmoor Borough Council's Local Plan timetable, version 3.0 (September 2026). The council's own dates, which may change.
Stage	Council's timetable
Consultation on content and evidence, including a proposed spatial strategy approach	1 February to 15 March 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	17 January to 13 March 2028
Submission to the Secretary of State	31 July 2028
Adoption considered	22 February 2029

The February 2027 stage is where the council first shows its spatial strategy, so evidence for a site is most useful before then. The council's call for sites invites submissions and gives no closing date. Our guide to how long planning takes sets the stages against an application.

The Next Supply Statement

The March 2026 statement took its base date from April 2025. A statement from April 2026 would be the first to show whether the Wellesley build rate and the town centre schemes close a 164-home gap. We make no forecast. If a new statement reaches five years, the extra weight falls away; if not, it stays.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026 and is repeated every year. At 176%, Rushmoor is a long way clear of every threshold: 95% for an action plan, 85% for a 20% buffer and 75% for unmet need to be treated as shown.

Reorganisation Withdrawn

The cabinet report noted that the plan timetable ran beyond April 2028, when a new council was due to take over. The government had placed Rushmoor with Hart and Basingstoke and Deane in a North Hampshire council, then on 7 September 2026 withdrew the Hampshire decision and confirmed that May 2027 elections go ahead on existing boundaries. For now Rushmoor keeps charge of its plan.

What This Means for Timing

Sites inside the towns can be looked at now, with the shortfall adding weight.
Anything needing a change of plan policy is best prepared before the February 2027 consultation.
Land near the heaths or the airport needs its constraints checked first, which our free review does.

Questions About Land in Rushmoor

The council is short of five years. Does that mean my land near Farnborough will get permission?

Not on its own. The shortfall adds weight, but the plan limits building outside the towns strictly and every site needs heathland mitigation. Sites inside the towns gain most. We look at where yours sits before giving a view.

I own a workshop and yard in Aldershot. Could it become homes?

Often, yes. Sites inside the two towns supply a large share of Rushmoor's new homes, as the plan intends. Access, neighbours, parking and the heathland payment are the usual questions, and we pay for the work to answer them.

Does one extra home really need a heathland payment?

Yes. The whole borough is within five kilometres of the protected heaths, so net new homes pay towards SANG and SAMM, at rates set by the size of the home. It is a known cost, taken into account when we agree a price.

Will the airport applications affect my land?

They may, if your land is near the runway or under a flight path, where noise and safety are weighed. Elsewhere in the borough they are unlikely to decide the outcome.

My land cannot take houses. Is there any point putting it forward?

Possibly. The council's call for sites asks for land for SANG and for biodiversity net gain offsetting as well as for homes, and outside Blandford Woods the council's own SANGs have almost no room left. Where such land helps a housing scheme work, we look at the two together.

Tell Us About Your Land in Rushmoor

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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.