Selling Land in Canterbury

Canterbury's 79% result is not below the line at which national policy treats need as unmet automatically, so a field beyond a settlement boundary cannot rely on the score alone. The land supply is a different matter. At 3.62 years, the council is short of the five years policy expects, and under the August 2026 framework a gap in supply counts as evidence of unmet need for policy S5. Land that sits well against Canterbury, Whitstable, Herne Bay or a larger village, and that roads, schools and drainage can serve, therefore has a live argument today.

Inside a settlement, policy S4 applies whatever the numbers: development should be approved unless the harm substantially outweighs the benefits. For yards, workshops and tired commercial plots in the city or the coastal towns, that is often the cleaner route, and the plan's own shift towards brownfield land points the same way. Our page on brownfield sites and yards covers what we look for.

The picture has improved. The monitoring report records the previous published result as 67%, for the period to 2022/23, and 1,092 net new homes were completed in 2024/25. KentOnline's report of the March debate explains why councillors felt bound to approve the plan: without one, the district would face the presumption in favour of sustainable development on unallocated sites. The plan gains weight as it moves through examination, so a very large unallocated proposal will struggle. A small site on a settlement edge competes with nobody's allocation, which is why the two routes can sit together.

Canterbury's draft asks more of new housing than national minimums, and those costs come out of the value of any scheme. The two main sources describe the affordable housing policy differently, but they agree once the arithmetic is done.

The council also counts 2,329 homes at affordable rents and 721 homes for older people in the plan. Contributions towards all of this are secured by legal agreement, and our guides to section 106 and CIL and biodiversity net gain explain how they are worked out. We carry the cost of meeting them, and our price is agreed with them already in mind.

Submission and Examination

After the consultation closed on 18 May, the council said it expected to submit the plan to the Secretary of State in September 2026, and local reporting gives 31 December 2026 as the deadline. Once it is submitted, an inspector is appointed and hearings follow. Omitted sites can still be argued at examination, which is where the evidence we prepare does its work.

The Next Housing Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026 and covers April 2022 to March 2025. The government publishes the test each year, and the next edition will drop 2022/23 and add 2025/26. The council has not yet reported its 2025/26 completions; its last monitoring report came out in December 2025, so the next one is the early sign to look for.

• If a result falls below 75%, policy S5 would treat the district as having unmet need without further argument, reaching the edges of the city, the coastal towns and the villages.
• If a result reaches 85% or more, the 20% buffer falls to 5%, and the council's land supply figure would improve on the same sites.
• Adoption of the new plan, with fresh allocations, would change the land supply calculation and with it the strength of the shortfall argument for unallocated land.

The East Kent Council, Paused

Under the decision ministers took on 16 July 2026, Canterbury, Thanet and Dover would have formed an East Kent unitary council, one of four due to take over from April 2028. The government then paused reorganisation in Kent and Medway on 7 September 2026 for a review, and elections next May will be held for the existing councils. Canterbury City Council therefore stays the planning authority, and once its plan is adopted, that is the plan any future council would inherit for this part of its area.

What This Means for Your Timing

For land in the draft, the task is to support the allocation through examination and be ready to apply soon after. For land outside it, the shortfall stands now, and a well prepared application can run alongside the examination. We will tell you which we would do first, and neither route comes with a promised date.