Selling Land in Canterbury

With the shortfall reaching the city, both coastal towns and the villages, the land we most want to see is land that already feels part of somewhere. The draft plan, the appeal record and the nutrient rules point to these:

• Fields of about 2 acres or more on the edges of Canterbury, Whitstable and Herne Bay, where the road network and drainage can take new homes.
• Land beside Sturry, Chartham, Littlebourne, Blean, Bridge or Hersden that existing homes, lanes or field boundaries already contain.
• Yards, workshops and tired commercial plots in the city and the coastal towns. The council's brownfield register held 26 live sites in March 2025, and plenty of suitable land has never been put on it.
• Land around Littlebourne that drains to the Little Stour. At the 2026 appeal, the inspector recorded Natural England's advice that the revised Stodmarsh catchment no longer takes in the Little Stour, so nutrient mitigation there may not be needed.
• Sites that fell out between drafts of the plan but still sit well against a settlement, where the evidence can be put again.
• Larger holdings with room to host wetland mitigation, open space or the 20% biodiversity net gain the draft asks for on major sites.

Land inside the Kent Downs National Landscape, or out in open countryside with no settlement close by, is harder to bring forward, and our review will tell you so plainly.

• 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.

Full Council approved the final draft on 18 March 2026 by 23 votes to 12, as KentOnline reported. The plan sets a requirement of 1,215 homes a year and, the council says, now takes 1,640 homes from brownfield land, against 706 in the 2022 draft. Local reporting of the allocations gives this picture:

Just as telling is what fell away. Between drafts, the council's February 2026 summary records, it dropped 3,200 homes around Adisham, 2,000 on land north of the University of Kent, and sites at Rattington Street in Chartham and near Hollow Lane, and it changed Beacon Road in Herne Bay to keep a significant area of open space.

Why You Will See 15 Years, 17 Years and 2043

Three descriptions of the plan period are in circulation. The council's own news release of February 2026 speaks of a plan for a minimum of 15 years, which is the look-ahead national policy expects from adoption. Local reporting describes a 17-year plan, which matches the years left between 2026 and 2043. The council's monitoring report names it the Local Plan 2024/25 to 2042/43, and that is the period the numbers are built on: nineteen years at 1,215 homes comes to a little over 23,000, consistent with the headline figure. For a landowner the difference is presentation: the requirement to be tested is 1,215 homes a year across that period.

For an owner whose land was among the sites dropped around Adisham, north of the university or at Chartham, the council's reasons for leaving it out are the place to start, since they show what evidence a fresh case would need.

The Stodmarsh lakes are protected for wetland wildlife that phosphate and nitrate pollution threatens. Every new home in the affected catchment has to be shown to be nutrient neutral first, and the county council reports that over 7,000 homes in the five districts have been delayed since 2020. On 23 July 2026 it launched a fund of £9.8 million, from a government grant, for wetland creation, ditch enhancement and treatment works upgrades that will produce mitigation credits for housing.

Water supply is part of the plan too. Local reporting of the final draft lists the Broad Oak Reservoir, covering some 200 acres, among the infrastructure it provides for.

• On larger sites, part of the land can sometimes host wetland or other mitigation, which helps the scheme and the catchment.
• On smaller sites, credits bought from an approved provider are usually the practical answer.
• Either way, the cost sits with us. It is allowed for when we agree your price, and you are not asked to fund it.

Submission is the next step. After the consultation closed on 18 May, the council said it expected the examination stage to begin in September 2026, with the plan sent to the Secretary of State and an inspector appointed. By late September its newsroom had announced neither, and local reporting gives 31 December 2026 as the deadline for submission. Omitted sites can still be argued at examination, which is where the evidence we prepare does its work.

Three Things That Would Shift the Picture

Published on 17 August 2026, the Housing Delivery Test 2025 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.

Reorganisation is paused as well. 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 in May 2027 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.

Support the Allocation, or Apply Alongside the Examination

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.