Selling Land in Broxbourne

• Plots, yards and backland inside Cheshunt, Hoddesdon, Waltham Cross, Broxbourne and Wormley.
• Green Belt land enclosed by houses, roads or other buildings on the edges of Goffs Oak, Cheshunt and Hoddesdon.
• Previously developed land in the Green Belt, such as former commercial yards and depots with lawful buildings or hardstanding.
• Derelict glasshouse sites in the Green Belt, where the plan provides for small self-build schemes once horticulture is shown to be no longer viable.
• Larger holdings in the west of the borough that could be considered in the new Local Plan.

Glasshouse land needs care, because horticultural buildings count as agricultural and so are not previously developed land in national policy. For yards and depots, our page on brownfield and yards covers the ground.

Whichever route fits, we meet every cost of the planning work under an option at a price agreed at the outset, set above what the land is worth today.

• 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.

The council's Authority Monitoring Report for 2024/25 sets out its five-year supply twice: on the plan's figure of 454 homes a year at 1 April 2025, and from 23 June 2025, when it says the plan's housing policies fell out of date, on the government's standard method, which the December 2024 changes lifted to 787 a year.

Even on the old figure the council could not show five years. The report used a 5% buffer because the delivery test in force at the time gave 86%, and the Housing Delivery Test 2025 result of 110% keeps it at 5%. A council report updating members on the new plan puts it plainly: a five-year supply cannot currently be demonstrated, so the housing element of the plan is treated as out of date.

What the Shortfall Changes, and What It Does Not

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 lets a shortfall stand as evidence of unmet need for homes on the edge of a town or village, but it has no force inside the Green Belt. With no countryside here beyond the Green Belt, S5 barely touches Broxbourne's fields. The shortfall earns its keep through grey belt instead. Grey belt housing has to meet an evidenced need for homes, and a supply of 2.13 years provides that evidence today. Plots within Cheshunt, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross fall under policy S4 instead, which favours approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

Almost all land offered for sale in Broxbourne outside the towns is Green Belt, so for most owners the shortfall matters as the evidence of need behind a grey belt case rather than through S5.

The 2020 plan provides for 7,718 homes between 2016 and 2033 under policy DS1. Much of it rests on a few large allocations, whose pace explains much of the gap above:

• Brookfield Riverside (policy BR1), about 250 homes as part of a new town centre. Outline permission was issued on 20 February 2025, and the monitoring report expects construction to begin in mid 2027.
• Brookfield Garden Village (policy BR2), up to 1,250 homes with a primary school and a blue light hub. The planning committee approved it in May 2025 subject to a section 106 agreement, with a proposed condition capping it at 600 completions until a substantial start has been made on Brookfield Riverside.
• Cheshunt Lakeside (policy CH1), allocated for 1,750 homes. The monitoring report records that the developer went into administration, that fresh plans are being discussed with a new developer, and that first completions are not now expected until 2030/31.
• Rosedale Park (policy CH2), around 820 homes, and High Leigh Garden Village in Hoddesdon, where five permissions provide 441, both already delivering homes in phases.

Completions Year by Year

The council's own count of net completions has swung widely: 457 in 2018/19, 150 in 2019/20, 204, 335, then 527 in 2022/23, 460 and 305 in 2024/25. Its three years from 2022/23 to 2024/25 add up to 1,292 homes, while the Housing Delivery Test 2025, covering April 2022 to March 2025, records 1,492. The counts differ because the government's rule book for the test also adds bedrooms in student and other communal accommodation, such as care homes, at a set ratio, which a council's table of new homes usually leaves out.

With Cheshunt Lakeside stalled and Brookfield not yet under way, smaller sites, including well chosen grey belt land, carry more weight here than their size suggests.