Selling Land in Stevenage

The plan leans hard on land that is already in use. It aims for at least 60% of the borough's new homes on previously developed land, and it supports homes on unallocated sites in suitable locations that stay within the town's environmental capacity. That points us to:

• Older office buildings, now that the inspector's report records a surplus of office floorspace in the borough, unlike industrial and warehouse space, which is in short supply.
• Previously developed sites of 0.25 hectares or more, or able to take five homes or more, which can be put on the council's brownfield land register through its submission form.
• Land close to the New Town's neighbourhood centres, where the plan commits to a rolling programme of investment.
• Previously developed sites in the town centre and the Old Town, where the plan sets out to make the most of such land, and near the station, the focus of the Station Gateway regeneration.
• Fields in what remains of the Green Belt at the edge of the town, especially beside the new neighbourhoods to the west, north and south-east, to be ready for the new plan.

Some land is harder, and we will tell you so. The plan protects the Pin Green employment area and aims to keep a range of business space elsewhere, so industrial land needs a strong case while the shortage lasts. And the council's June 2025 paper found that every site in its constrained area likely to be deliverable is already allocated, so greenfield land not in the plan is, in most cases, a matter for the new plan rather than an application 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 figures panel on this page uses the Planning Inspectorate's monitoring data, which records the plan as adopted in May 2019 and so 7 years old. The council's own website tells a newer story. An inspector reported on 27 May 2026 that the partial update was sound with main modifications, and the council adopted it on 22 July 2026.

Both are right about what they measure. The 2019 date is when the plan's strategy and site allocations were first adopted, and the monitoring data follows that. The update was narrower: according to the inspector, it dealt with climate change, homes for older people and wheelchair users, affordable housing, flexibility in the town centre and the Station Gateway area. The inspector also confirmed that the housing requirement was unchanged, and examined the update against the December 2023 version of national policy because its requirement was more than 80% of local need under the newer standard method.

Why the Difference Matters

Under national policy, a plan older than five years usually has its housing figure replaced by the standard method. The update has just re-examined the requirement and kept it, so an argument that the plan is simply out of date would be weak here. It is safer to treat the updated plan as carrying full weight until the new one replaces it.

Beyond the town centre, the plan's growth sits in new neighbourhoods at the edges, and the northern one runs across the borough boundary. The council's June 2025 paper sets out where its own sites stood, and North Hertfordshire's masterplan page covers the land on its side.

Why the Town Centre Figure Varies

The adopted plan speaks of 3,000 new homes in the town centre, while the June 2025 paper counts about 1,707 for SG1. The likeliest explanation is that SG1 is one regeneration programme within the centre, while the plan's figure covers the whole centre over the plan period. Either way, the centre is expected to carry a large share of the borough's homes.

Forster Country

The land north of the town has a literary history. The adopted plan gives part of the North Stevenage site conservation area status to protect the setting of Rooks Nest, the childhood home of E. M. Forster and the setting he drew on for Howards End. Heritage of this kind shapes layout and open space rather than ruling out homes altogether.

If you own land next to one of these neighbourhoods, its new roads and services can change what your own field could carry, which is why we read the masterplans on both sides of the boundary before advising.

The government publishes the Housing Delivery Test once a year. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, issued on 17 August 2026, covers April 2022 to March 2025. If the next result fell below 75%, unmet need would be treated as proven under policy S5. If it rose to 85% or more, the 20% buffer would fall away. Stevenage's land supply paper of May 2024 was written when the council's latest result was 57%, so the direction of travel since has been upward, though we would not predict the next result.

Fewer Homes Counted as Deliverable, and an Entirely New Plan to Come

The most recent published figure we have found is the June 2025 paper's 5.49 years for the five years from 1 April 2024 to March 2029, which already includes a 20% buffer. The May 2024 update had put the same period at 5.59 years; the later paper counts fewer homes as deliverable, 4,664 rather than 4,755. The council has not published a date for its next statement.

The adopted update records the council's commitment to producing an entirely new Local Plan immediately after it. Its June 2025 timetable expected scoping work to begin at the end of 2025 or early 2026, and the inspector noted that the future role of the Graveley Road site will be reconsidered in that plan. The new plan must reckon with a higher figure: the council's June 2025 paper put local housing need under the December 2024 standard method at 478 homes a year, against the 380 in the current plan. With little open land inside the boundary, how that gap is met, and with which neighbours, is the central question.

Reorganisation is paused. In July 2026 the government decided that Stevenage would join most of North Hertfordshire and most of Welwyn Hatfield in a new Central Hertfordshire council. A letter from the local government minister on 7 September 2026 told councils to cease work on the July decision while the government reviews it, and said the May 2027 elections will go ahead on existing council boundaries. Until there is a final decision, Stevenage Borough Council keeps making its own plan. If a Central Hertfordshire council does go ahead, the town and the North Hertfordshire land around much of it would come under one planning authority.

Town Sites Now, Edge Land at the New Plan's First Stages

Inside the town, a sound proposal can go in now under policy S4. For edge land, the new plan is the main event, and getting evidence in front of the council at its first stages is worth more than arriving late. How those stages work is explained in our local plan guide.