Selling Land in Gravesham

• Land on the edges of Istead Rise, Meopham and Higham, where the council is already proposing Green Belt changes.
• Former yards, nurseries, depots and other previously developed land in the rural area.
• Fields enclosed by existing homes, the A2 or the railway, where the Green Belt contribution may be weaker.
• Brownfield plots inside Gravesend and Northfleet.
• Land within walking distance of Gravesend or Meopham stations.

If your land is in the Kent Downs, or in the open gap between Gravesend and the Medway Towns, the case is harder, and we will tell you so in our review.

• 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 61% score puts policy S5 of the National Planning Policy Framework in play, but S5 does not apply in the Green Belt, and in Gravesham that covers almost all the land beyond the edge of the town and the inset villages.

Where the Result Still Helps

• Grey belt. A field that does little to stop Gravesend spreading, or to keep neighbouring villages distinct, may count as grey belt. The shortfall then matters, since homes on grey belt land need a demonstrable need for them before they can be approved.
• Previously developed land. Former yards, depots and commercial sites in the countryside have their own routes under Green Belt policy.
• Land inside Gravesend and Northfleet. The urban area is drawn out of the Green Belt, so a plot there is judged under policy S4, which expects approval unless the harm would be substantial.

Not all Green Belt here does the same job. The council's study gives particular weight to the land that keeps a break between the eastern edge of Gravesend and the Medway Towns, calling it one of the few barriers to London's eastward sprawl along the estuary. Land that plays that role faces a much harder test than a field tucked against Istead Rise or Meopham.

The council has said its plan follows a brownfield first approach, but that it has had to include some Green Belt sites to meet the government's figure. Mochrie-Cox, who is also deputy leader, put it bluntly in February 2026: "We have taken in every brownfield site we can." That is a clear signal that edge-of-village land at the larger settlements is being taken seriously.

For a Green Belt site, the evidence that counts most is how the land performs against each Green Belt purpose, a landscape and visual appraisal, and a transport study showing safe access, all of which we commission and pay for. Our grey belt guide explains the tests, including the Golden Rules on affordable housing, infrastructure and green space.

A Supply of 2.53 Years

In July 2026 the council published a five year land supply statement covering the five years from 1 April 2025. Because of past under delivery it adds a 20% buffer, raising the annual figure to 811 homes, and against that it can show only 2.53 years of deliverable sites. That admission carries weight whenever an application must show an unmet need for homes, grey belt schemes included.

The delivery result adds to that. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, released on 17 August 2026, stays in force until the government publishes the next edition, which should bring 2025/26 into its three year window and drop 2022/23. A result as far under 75% as Gravesham's cannot sensibly be expected to clear the line in one release. In a borough this heavily Green Belt, though, S5 reaches very little land anyway, so the delivery figures matter here mainly as support for the need argument above.

Then comes the examination. The council said in April that it would send the plan for independent examination later in 2026. After submission, the Planning Inspectorate appoints an inspector, who sets the matters and questions for the hearings; if the plan can be made sound with changes, main modifications are then published for comment before the final report. Until adoption, the 2014 Core Strategy remains the plan in force.

The Examination Is the Moment to Argue a Boundary

For owners near Istead Rise, Meopham or Higham, the window is narrower than it looks. Once new Green Belt boundaries are adopted they are meant to endure, and redrawing them again needs exceptional circumstances. The examination is the realistic moment to argue that a boundary should sit differently, and the evidence has to be ready before the hearings are timetabled. We would rather begin that work now than count on a later review.