Hertfordshire council area
Selling Land in East Hertfordshire
Checked on
East Hertfordshire meets the government's delivery test with a result of 102%, but its District Plan dates from October 2018 and the council can no longer show five years of housing land: at a Buntingford inquiry in September 2026 it put its own supply at 2.88 years. About two thirds of the district lies outside the Green Belt, so that shortfall reaches a great deal of open countryside directly.
- We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
- Your price is agreed up front, in writing
- If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing
In short
We buy land with development potential in East Hertfordshire and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.
East Hertfordshire can show 2.88 years of housing land, short of the five years national policy expects. That shortfall is evidence of need which decisions must weigh, so a well placed field next to a town or village can make a case outside the local plan. It is not a guarantee. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from October 2018, more than five years ago.
We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.
The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.
The Land We Buy in East Hertfordshire
- Fields on the edges of Buntingford and the Group 1 villages in the rural north, with a road frontage.
- Land around Bishop's Stortford, Hertford, Ware and Sawbridgeworth that is enclosed by houses, roads or the railway.
- Yards, depots and other previously developed land, in the Green Belt or beyond it.
- Plots and backland inside the towns.
- Larger holdings that could be weighed in the new Local Plan.
For each site we prepare the evidence the council will test, from access and drainage to landscape and, in the south, Green Belt purposes, and we pay for all of it. We fix the option price before the work begins, pitched above the land's value today, and if permission is never secured you keep your land and owe nothing.
Is Your Land in East Hertfordshire a Good Fit?
You do not need to know the planning rules to sell land for development in East Hertfordshire. These are the things that make a site a strong candidate:
- It sits next to, or is well related to, an existing town or village.
- A safe access onto a public road is possible, even if it needs work.
- Most of the land is outside the highest flood risk zone.
- It is not covered by a strong designation such as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
- It is about 2 acres or more, or part of a larger holding.
- Everyone who owns it is willing to consider one clear, agreed price.
If your land does not tick every box, ask anyway. Many of the sites we take on have a problem to solve, whether that is access, drainage, a tenancy or an awkward boundary, and solving those problems is our job.
Ways to Sell Your Land in East Hertfordshire
There are three common ways to sell land with development potential in East Hertfordshire. They suit different owners, and the right one depends on whether your land needs planning permission before it is worth more.
- 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.
Selling Land in East Hertfordshire: From First Call to Completion
Selling land for development under an option agreement follows the same steps wherever your land is.
- A first conversation. You call us or send the form on this page. We need only your postcode, your name and a phone number or email.
- A free desktop review. Within a few days we look at your land, the planning position in East Hertfordshire and the routes open to it, and tell you plainly whether it suits us. The review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
- Heads of terms and the option agreement. If it suits, we agree a price with you in writing, then the option agreement itself. We contribute to your solicitor's and land agent's fees, so it costs you nothing to get it done properly.
- The planning work, at our cost. We pay for the surveys, the design, the planning application and any appeal. You carry on farming, grazing or letting the land as you do now.
- Completion. If planning 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.
How selling land for development works, step by step gives the detail of each stage and how long it usually takes.
What the Local Plan Means If You Are Selling Land in East Hertfordshire
Three things shape the chances of selling land for development in East Hertfordshire: the government's latest count of homes built against those needed, the council's five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.
Housing Delivery Test 2025
102%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
2.88 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 31 March 2025, measured against a requirement of 1,237 homes a year, in place of the District Plan figure of 839. Stated by East Herts District Council, at the Buntingford appeal inquiry (decision of 24 September 2026).
Checked sourceHomes built against homes needed
2,909
of 2,840 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
October 2018
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
New Local Plan in preparation; timetable updated July 2026
Checked source
See how East Hertfordshire compares with the other 187 councils we cover
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.
The planning detail in full
One Third Green Belt, Two Thirds Beyond It
The District Plan puts East Hertfordshire at 477 square kilometres. Its towns are Bishop's Stortford, Hertford, Ware, Sawbridgeworth and Buntingford, and it has a long list of villages, from Watton-at-Stone and Stanstead Abbotts in the south to Braughing, Standon and Puckeridge in the north.
- Green Belt in the south only. The District Plan says the Green Belt covers approximately the southern third of the district and takes in Bishop's Stortford, Hertford, Sawbridgeworth and Ware, together with several villages.
- Two thirds beyond it. The remaining two thirds of the district is Rural Area Beyond the Green Belt, a local designation under policy GBR2, and Buntingford lies within it.
- Delivery test met. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 2,909 homes built in the district, set against 2,840 required: a result of 102%.
- An old plan with a large target. The District Plan was adopted in October 2018 and provides for at least 18,458 homes between 2011 and 2033, with the Gilston Area allocated for 10,000, many of them beyond 2033.
- An airport next door. The plan records that Stansted Airport, outside the district, sits immediately to the north east of Bishop's Stortford and has strategic implications for the area.
That line decides which part of national policy a field is judged under, so it matters more here than any headline figure.
Selling Land in East Hertfordshire: Supply of 3.4 to 3.7 Years on Paper, 2.88 Years at Inquiry
The District Plan turned five in October 2023, so supply is now measured against the government's standard method, and the December 2024 revision of that method raised the need figure sharply. The council's housing land supply page and its April 2026 questions and answers set out the requirement like this:
| Part of the calculation | Council's figure |
|---|---|
| Local housing need, standard method | 1,223 homes a year |
| Buffer | 5%, adding 61 homes a year |
| Yearly requirement with buffer | 1,284 homes |
| Five-year requirement | 6,421 homes |
| Supply found | Between 3.4 and 3.7 years, an interim figure using completions to late February 2025 |
The council adds that no formal position statement has been published since March 2024, when local reporting put supply at 5.57 years under the earlier method.
What the Council Told the Buntingford Inquiry
The website range is not the council's latest word. At a public inquiry in September 2026 into up to 600 homes west of the A10 at Buntingford, both sides agreed the council could not show five years at a base date of 31 March 2025. The council put its supply at 2.88 years and the developer at 2.21 years. The inspector's decision of 24 September 2026 weighed the appeal on that range and records a requirement of 1,237 homes a year, against 839 a year in the District Plan.
So two council figures are in circulation: an interim range from early 2025, which its web pages still quote, and the lower one it gave the inspector. Either way supply is well short of five years, and the more recent evidence puts it lower still. The inspector chose the council's figure, its best case, for the final balance, and still gave the new homes substantial weight.
Why You May See 1,223, 1,237 or 1,265
Local reporting in March 2025 gave the new need as 1,265 homes a year, up from 1,041. The council's pages use 1,223 and the inspector's decision 1,237. The standard method's inputs are refreshed every year, with new affordability ratios usually published each March, which is the most likely reason the figure has moved. None of the three changes the conclusion, as each is far above the plan's 839.
The Plan's Own Sums
The council's monitoring report for 2024/25 records 10,299 homes completed between 2011 and March 2025, leaving about 8,159 of the plan's minimum to come in eight years, or roughly 1,020 a year. Since 2018/19, output has ranged from 778 to 1,388 a year, so even the old target asks more than the district usually builds.
Whichever figure is used, an owner selling land here is dealing with a council that cannot show five years, and that is what gives a well placed field in the district its weight.
Selling Land Either Side of the Green Belt Line
With supply short of five years, the council itself says the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies, while noting that Green Belt policy can still provide a clear reason for refusal. How that plays out depends on where the land lies:
- In the Rural Area Beyond the Green Belt. Here the August 2026 framework's policy S5 can come into play. A shortfall of this size counts as evidence of unmet need, though the finding is not automatic: the site has to relate well, physically, to the settlement beside it, and the roads, schools and drainage there, existing or planned, must be able to absorb it. At Buntingford in September 2026, an inspector found a site across the A10 well related to the town and allowed up to 600 homes under S5. It followed an August 2024 appeal allowing up to 350 homes east of the A10, where the council was also found short of five years.
- Beside the larger villages. The District Plan names eight Group 1 villages, including Braughing, Much Hadham, Standon and Puckeridge, Walkern and Watton-at-Stone, and expects five of them, in the rural area, to grow their housing stock by 10% between 2017 and 2033, measured from the 2011 Census.
- In the Green Belt around the four southern towns. S5 does not reach this land, so grey belt is the way in. Homes on grey belt land must rest on evidenced need too, and the district's shortfall against its five-year requirement gives that evidence for now.
- Inside the towns. Sites within Hertford, Ware, Bishop's Stortford and Sawbridgeworth fall under policy S4, which favours approval unless the adverse effects would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Policy GBR2, the plan's own rule for the rural area, is restrictive on paper, allowing mainly agriculture, rural exception housing, limited infilling and the redevelopment of previously developed sites. At Buntingford the inspector found GBR2 and the plan's settlement strategy materially inconsistent with S5 and gave the conflict with them only limited weight. Our grey belt guide covers the southern half of the picture, and farmland explains how we look at larger fields in the north.
Gilston and the Other Large Sites, and Why Smaller Land Still Counts
The Gilston Area is the plan's single largest allocation: 10,000 homes in seven villages, with Places for People leading Villages 1 to 6 and Taylor Wimpey Village 7. Permission was granted in January 2025, and the monitoring report expected works to start in 2026. The council approved a strategic landscape masterplan in February 2026, the Village 7 masterplan in April 2026 and the Village 1 masterplan in July 2026. The Central Stort Crossing is under construction, and the council expects the Eastern Stort Crossing to follow later in 2026.
The monitoring report expects Gilston to run beyond 2033, and even with it permitted the council is short of five years, so its size does not close the gap.
Progress on the Rest of the Plan
| Area | Plan minimum | Position in the 2024/25 monitoring report |
|---|---|---|
| Bishop's Stortford | 4,426 homes | Two sites complete and three under way; one application withdrawn |
| Ware | 1,000 homes | Site WARE2 awaiting a decision |
| Hertford | 950 homes | Three sites complete; the north part of HERT3 awaiting a decision |
| Sawbridgeworth | 500 homes | Two sites complete; SAWB4 approved in May 2025 |
| East of Stevenage | 600 homes | Under construction, with completions coming through |
| East of Welwyn Garden City | About 1,350 in East Herts | Masterplan adopted October 2023, outline application awaiting a decision |
Several of these are still waiting on decisions rather than building.
For the owner of a smaller field near Buntingford or a Group 1 village, that slow start is the practical point: land that can be built within five years carries more weight while the large allocations wait.
When to Sell Land in East Hertfordshire: A New Plan Through Three Gateways, Due in 2029
East Herts is preparing its next plan under the new system, which adds three gateway stages, the second with advice from the Planning Inspectorate. It issued its notice of intention on 11 June 2026 and held a scoping consultation until 10 July. The council's timetable, published on 13 July 2026, sets out what follows:
| Stage | Council's timetable |
|---|---|
| Gateway 1 self-assessment | 15 October 2026 |
| Plan content and evidence consultation | 22 February to 5 April 2027 |
| Gateway 2 advice from the Planning Inspectorate | 1 November 2027 |
| Proposed Local Plan consultation | 21 February to 17 April 2028 |
| Submission for examination | 2 October 2028 |
| Expected adoption | 2 April 2029 |
The monitoring report records that a call for sites in late 2024 drew more than 280 sites for the council to consider. The spring 2027 consultation is the first point at which the plan's content and evidence will be put to the public. How sites are judged at each stage is explained in our call for sites guide.
No Date for the Next Statement, and Eastern Hertfordshire Paused
The council has not dated its next formal supply statement. At 102%, East Herts clears every line the delivery test draws. Slipping under 95% would oblige the council to publish an action plan; under 85%, its supply calculation would carry a 20% buffer instead of 5%, enlarging the requirement in the table above. The latest edition, the Housing Delivery Test 2025, was issued on 17 August 2026. If the usual pattern holds, the next edition would measure April 2023 to March 2026, keeping the strong 2023/24 year in play, and the edition after that will lose it.
On 16 July 2026 the government decided that East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne, together with Welwyn Hatfield's Northaw and Cuffley ward and a group of wards from North Hertfordshire, would form an Eastern Hertfordshire council, taking over on 1 April 2028. That is now on hold: in a letter dated 7 September 2026, the minister asked Hertfordshire leaders to cease work on the decision during a review, and May 2027 elections will be held on existing boundaries. The council's own timetable warns that reorganisation could affect its dates.
The Rural North and Grey Belt Now, Larger Holdings for Spring 2027
- Well placed land in the rural north can be considered for an application now, while the shortfall stands.
- Grey belt land in the south can be too, parcel by parcel.
- Larger holdings are best prepared for the spring 2027 consultation.
Questions About Selling Land in East Hertfordshire
Does the shortfall help a field near Buntingford, outside the Green Belt?
It can. In the rural area a supply below five years counts as evidence of unmet need under policy S5, and in September 2026 an inspector allowed up to 600 homes west of the A10 on that basis. A field still has to be well related to the town and served by roads and services that can cope, but it can make a case now rather than waiting for the new plan.
Could land on the edge of Hertford be grey belt?
Possibly. Land that does little to stop towns merging or to check sprawl can qualify, and with supply short of five years the need test is met. It is a parcel by parcel judgement, and the Golden Rules on affordable homes and green space then apply.
I missed the 2024 call for sites. Is it too late?
Not necessarily. On the council's timetable the plan's content and evidence go out to consultation in spring 2027, and land can also come forward by application where national policy supports it.
Gilston has 10,000 homes. Does the council still need more land?
Yes. Gilston is permitted but runs beyond 2033, and the council's own figures show a shortfall against its five-year requirement despite it.
Does being near Stansted affect what can be built?
The plan notes the airport's strategic implications for the area around Bishop's Stortford. Whether it touches a particular field, for example through aircraft noise, is one of the checks in our free review of your land.
What price will you pay for my land?
We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.
When would I be paid?
You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.
More Questions Landowners Selling Land in East Hertfordshire Ask
The same questions come up wherever land is put forward. Each is answered in full in our guides, and where East Hertfordshire stands on housing shapes which matter most here.
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Selling Land in East Hertfordshire? Tell Us About It
It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly.
- We reply within 2 working days, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
- The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
- If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.
More in Hertfordshire
County overview
Selling Land in Hertfordshire
Sell land for development in Hertfordshire: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring council · Homes built: 110% of need
Selling Land in Broxbourne
Sell land for development in Broxbourne: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring council · Homes built: 46% of need
Selling Land in Welwyn Hatfield
Sell land in Welwyn Hatfield. Free review. We pay for all the planning and agree your price up front. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring council · Homes built: 75% of need
Selling Land in North Hertfordshire
Sell land in North Hertfordshire. Free review. We pay for all the planning and agree your price up front. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring council · Homes built: 78% of need
Selling Land in Stevenage
Sell land for development in Stevenage: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Homes built: 95% of need
Selling Land in Watford
Sell land in Watford, near Garston. Free review. We pay for all the planning and agree your price first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Homes built: 52% of need
Selling Land in Dacorum
Sell land for development in Dacorum: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Homes built: 26% of need
Selling Land in Hertsmere
Sell land for development in Hertsmere: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Homes built: 46% of need
Selling Land in St Albans
Sell land for development in St Albans: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Homes built: 47% of need
Selling Land in Three Rivers
Sell land for development in Three Rivers: free review, we pay for all the planning, price agreed first. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring Councils Beyond Hertfordshire
- Epping ForestEssex · 4.22 years of housing land
- HarlowEssex · 4.9 years of housing land
- UttlesfordEssex · 4.77 years of housing land
Sources
- East Herts District Council: East Herts District Plan (adopted October 2018)
- East Herts District Council: District Plan, chapter 10, Villages
- East Herts District Council: Five Year Land Supply FAQs (April 2026)
- East Herts District Council: Monitoring and five year land supply
- East Herts District Council: Authority Monitoring Report 2024/25 (January 2026)
- East Herts District Council: Local Plan timetable (July 2026)
- East Herts District Council: The Gilston Area
- Planning Inspectorate: Appeal decision 6008238, land north of A507, west of A10, Buntingford (24 September 2026)
- Landmark Chambers: 350 homes allowed on appeal in East Hertfordshire (August 2024)
- Bishop's Stortford Independent: East Herts Council's five-year housing supply drops to 3.4 years (March 2025)
- East Herts District Council: Government announces four unitary authorities in Hertfordshire (July 2026)
- Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council: Ministerial letter on reviewing reorganisation in Hertfordshire (September 2026)
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.