Selling Land in the Herefordshire Council Area

Most of our reviews here start on the edges of Hereford and the market towns, where the Core Strategy sends growth and the shortfall is evidence of unmet need that a decision has to weigh:

• Fields that adjoin Hereford, Leominster, Ledbury, Ross-on-Wye, Bromyard or Kington and could be reached safely from an existing road.
• Land beside a village named in policy RA2, at a scale that suits the village.
• Plots, paddocks and old yards inside a town or village, judged under policy S4.
• Farmland in the Lugg catchment where the phosphate budget can be met through credits or on the holding itself.
• Larger holdings near Hereford or a market town that belong in the new Local Plan.
• Inherited land held by executors who want a clear view of its planning prospects before deciding what to do.

Land deep in open countryside or inside either National Landscape faces stricter tests, and we will say so after the review. If a Herefordshire site earns its place, we agree the option price at the start and then pay for the phosphate calculations, the ecology, landscape and transport studies and the application itself, while you carry on farming. Our farmland page sets out what we look for on bigger holdings.

• 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.

Under the standard method the yearly need is 1,372 homes. The statement shows the working: 0.8% of the county's 91,516 homes, which is 732, multiplied by 1.874 to reflect an affordability ratio of 9.60. No past shortfall is added, because the method already allows for it:

How the Council Counts Its 4,046 Homes

Most of it is land with permission or a committee's backing, discounted before it counts:

Small sites of four homes or fewer averaged 216 homes a year over the last ten years, yet the statement counts 100 a year, and only in years four and five. Bromyard's extension at Hardwick Bank, 250 homes resolved for approval in January 2024, was refused on 3 July 2026 because its legal agreement, and with it the phosphate mitigation, was never completed, so it no longer counts.

The council's guidance for parish councils of November 2025 put the October 2025 statement at 3.11 years. The 677 net homes completed in 2025/26 were fewer than half of the 1,440 a year the sum now asks for, and that gap is why well placed land near the towns can be put forward now, not only through the next plan.

The supply statement records that the River Lugg, a tributary of the internationally important Wye, is failing its conservation targets for phosphate from sewage outlets and farm run-off. Natural England's update of July 2026 puts the Lugg in unfavourable and declining condition, says phosphorus levels exceed targets throughout its catchment, and notes that a full assessment of the Wye is under way.

The Council's Wetlands

The council answered with integrated wetlands that clean treated water and create phosphate credits a developer can buy. Its phosphate credits page, last updated in March 2025, sets out how they work:

After the cabinet approved the second phase of its strategy on 29 February 2024, the council said it would allow a minimum of 3,471 new homes in the catchment, helped by £1.9 million of government funding that included the Tarrington wetland. The supply statement records that further wetlands, public and private, are planned, and discounts only 8 homes for phosphate, while warning that it is far from certain every site on hold will come forward.

What National Law Has Changed

On 19 December 2025, under the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, Natural England told the Secretary of State that it intended to prepare sixteen Environmental Delivery Plans for nutrient pollution, the River Lugg among them, with phosphorus named as the pollutant. The Wye itself is not named on that list. Until a plan for the Lugg is in place, the council's credits and private schemes remain the way through.

For a landowner thinking of selling land near Leominster, the practical effect is cost and order rather than a ban. We work out the phosphate budget for a scheme early and build the mitigation into the planning case from the first drawing.

The council's timetable page, last updated on 10 August 2026, says the timetable is being prepared and will be published alongside a notice of intention to start the plan. The government's rollout guidance, updated in March 2026, does not place Herefordshire among the earliest councils, so the general rule applies: a notice by 31 December 2026 and the first gateway self-assessment by 30 April 2027. The November 2025 parish guidance had pencilled in the first consultation for September 2026, the draft plan for September 2027 and submission for June 2028, subject to change.

The Call for Sites Tranches

The call for sites opened on 26 June 2025 for housing sites capable of five or more homes, usually at least 0.25 hectares. Sites received by 31 January 2026 entered the first tranche of assessments, while those sent from 1 February 2026 wait for a second tranche. The council will publish a candidate site register when its assessments are done.

The Figures That Will Move

The council published its last two supply statements in October 2025 and September 2026, so the next would normally measure from 1 April 2027. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, gave 96%, from 2,326 homes built against 2,417 required. A result under 85% would raise the buffer in the supply sum to 20%, and one under 75% would see policy S5 treat unmet need as evidenced. Herefordshire is already a unitary council, so reorganisation elsewhere in England does not change who decides applications here.

• Land near Hereford and the market towns, clear of the National Landscapes, is best looked at now, while the shortfall stands and before a new plan sets its own allocations.
• Land in the Lugg catchment can move as soon as its phosphate solution is clear, and the Environmental Delivery Plan may add a further route in time.
• Larger holdings should be ready for the second call for sites tranche and the first consultation; our guide to local plans and site submissions explains each stage.