Selling Land 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.

• 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.

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:

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.

For an owner selling a garage court, yard or tired office in Farnborough or Aldershot, the present shortfall is therefore worth using while it stands, since a single new statement could close a gap that thin.

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:

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.

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:

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.

A 164-Home Gap, Clear Delivery, and No Merger for Now

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. Which way it goes is not something we predict. If a new statement reaches five years, the extra weight falls away; if not, it stays.

Delivery gives no such concern. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, released on 17 August 2026, 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 has been 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.

Town Sites Now, Policy Changes Before February 2027

• 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.