Kent council area

Selling Land in Thanet

Thanet adopted a plan for more than 17,000 homes in 2020, yet it is delivering only 70% of what it needs. With no Green Belt and a new Local Plan just starting, the question for most land in the district is how well it relates to Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs and the villages.

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Thanet at a Glance

Thanet District is home to Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs, with Westgate-on-Sea and Birchington along the north coast, and farming villages such as Minster, Monkton, St Nicholas-at-Wade and Manston inland. Thanet Parkway station opened at Cliffsend on 31 July 2023, with services to St Pancras via Ashford in about 70 minutes.

Completions well short. Thanet scored 70% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, and since 2015/16 it has averaged only around 504 new homes a year.
A plan to 2031. The Thanet Local Plan was adopted on 9 July 2020, planning for 17,140 homes.
A new plan just beginning. The council published its notice of intention on 12 June 2026 and ran a scoping consultation from 24 August to 9 October 2026.
Few of the usual Kent constraints. KentOnline's review of Green Belt in the county found Thanet is one of six Kent districts with none, and Thanet is not among the councils with land in the Kent Downs National Landscape.

What Thanet does have is coastline protected for its birds, farmland that is predominantly Grade 1, and large allocations that have been slow to turn into homes. Each of these shapes where land can come forward.

Thanet in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
70%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
2,427
of 3,451 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
July 2020
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
New plan started: scoping consultation 24 August to 9 October 2026
Checked source

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.

A Plan With Sites but Not Enough Homes

The 2020 plan allocated large strategic sites, including around 2,000 homes at Westgate and further growth at Birchington, Minster, Margate and Westwood, as well as Manston Green and land at Nash and Haine Roads. Several are tied to road schemes named in the plan itself: the Westwood Relief Strategy, a developer-led scheme that includes a link between Margate Road and Westwood Road, and improvements to the A256 from Lord of the Manor, which developers pay towards in proportion.

At 70%, Thanet is under the 75% threshold, so policy S5 of the National Planning Policy Framework applies. It supports homes beyond a settlement boundary where a site sits well against a town or village and local roads, drainage and services have room for the extra homes, unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. In a district with no Green Belt, that test reaches every farm edge from Birchington round to Cliffsend.

Why Smaller Sites Matter Here

Completions have picked up to around 800 a year over the last two years, but that is still well short of the 1,106 a year the government now expects of Thanet. Sites of a few acres on the edges of Minster, Monkton or Birchington that can be built in one or two phases, without waiting for a relief road, close that gap sooner. We back that argument with a realistic build programme showing how quickly homes on your land could follow a permission.

The New Local Plan Timetable

Thanet is preparing its plan under the government's new plan-making system, and has published a full timetable to adoption.

Stage	Date in the council's timetable
Scoping consultation	24 August to 9 October 2026
Gateway 1	30 October 2026
Consultation on proposed content and evidence	28 January to 12 March 2027
Gateway 2	23 July 2027
Consultation on the proposed Local Plan	28 October to 24 December 2027
Gateway 3	21 January 2028
Submission for examination	10 March 2028
Examination	April 2028 to January 2029
Adoption	February 2029

The scoping stage invited suggestions for development sites, and the next rounds will test them. Under the new system the first gateway is the council's own self-assessment and the later two are reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate, so sites that arrive with their access, drainage and ecology already worked out will stand up best at each check.

15,000 Homes, or More?

Local reporting of the launch describes a plan for around 15,000 homes over about 15 years, while quoting the government's minimum local housing need of 1,106 homes a year, which over 15 years comes to about 16,600. The two are best read together rather than as a contradiction. The most likely reading is that the 15,000 is a round figure from the very start of the process, before the plan period or the count of homes already permitted has been fixed. The 1,106 a year is the figure the plan will be tested against, and it is a minimum. For a landowner that means the real requirement is, if anything, higher than the headline.

Until adoption in February 2029, the 2020 plan and national policy decide applications, so we test every Thanet site against both. If the plan route suits your land, call for sites and local plans describes what putting land forward involves.

Farmland Quality and the Edges of the District

The 2020 plan describes the countryside beyond the towns as predominantly Grade 1 agricultural land, with lower grade land only in small, isolated pockets that are often at high risk of flooding. When it was adopted, a councillor noted that more than 8,000 of its homes were on Grade 1 and 2 land around Westgate, Birchington, St Nicholas-at-Wade, Monkton and Minster. Farmland quality is weighed in every decision, but where almost all the land around the towns is top grade, it cannot rule out development on its own.

Flood risk sits in particular places. The plan says extensive areas to the south and west of the district carry high flood risk linked to former marshland and the old Wantsum Channel, and that the areas at risk are otherwise confined to the very edges of the coast. Away from those areas, the plan finds little flood risk. Our guide to flood risk and development land explains how the flood zones affect a site.

Manston

The former Manston airport site sits in the middle of the district. The 2020 plan safeguards it for airport related uses, following the development consent order for its reopening, and says its future use will be settled through an early review of the plan. Land nearby can be affected by the plans for the airport, including potential noise, and we check this carefully for any site in the area.

The Coastal Bird Tariff

The Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay Special Protection Area is protected for its birds, and the council treats the whole district as within the area where new homes must help manage visitor pressure. Every scheme that adds homes, and hotels or holiday accommodation, pays towards the Strategic Access Management and Monitoring plan, secured through a section 106 unilateral undertaking.

Home type	Contribution per home
1 bedroom flat	£202
2 bedroom house or flat	£320
3 bedroom house	£424
4 or more bedroom house	£530

The council puts the average at around £350 per home, and the figures allow for funding the work in perpetuity. For small applications of one to nine homes it provides a template undertaking, and says it will be minded to refuse if a completed draft is not submitted within 28 days of the application being validated. We prepare and pay for this, along with the rest of the planning work.

Land Inside Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs

Not every opportunity in Thanet is a field. The towns contain yards, garage courts, workshops and long rear gardens that can take new homes, and plots inside them come under policy S4, which starts from yes and needs substantial harm to justify a refusal.

The main questions on urban plots are access for vehicles, the privacy and light of neighbours, and heritage. The 2020 plan counts around 2,000 listed buildings and 27 conservation areas in the district, so a scheme in the historic centres needs a careful layout and design. A Cliftonville garage court or a Ramsgate workshop yard is the sort of plot covered on our yards and brownfield land page.

Land We Look for in Thanet

Fields on the edges of Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Westgate-on-Sea and Birchington that sit against existing homes.
Land around Minster, Monkton, Cliffsend and St Nicholas-at-Wade on the drier ground.
Sites of a few acres that could be built in one or two phases.
Yards, depots and former commercial land inside or next to a settlement.
Land within walking distance of Thanet Parkway or a town centre.

Land isolated in open farmland, well away from any settlement, is harder under S5, and we will tell you plainly if we think that applies to yours.

Questions About Land in Thanet

Thanet already has a plan. Why is it still at 70%?

The 2020 plan relies heavily on large strategic sites, several tied to road schemes such as the Westwood Relief Strategy, and completions have averaged about 504 a year since 2015/16. Having a plan in place does not stop the unmet need route in policy S5 applying, because that turns on the Housing Delivery Test result.

My land is Grade 1 or Grade 2 farmland. Does that rule it out?

No. The quality of farmland is a factor in the balance, not a bar, and the council's own plan put thousands of homes on high grade land. Location, access and how the site relates to the settlement usually matter more. Our page on farmland explains what we look for.

Should I wait for the new plan, which is not due until 2029?

Not necessarily. Well located land can come forward through an application now, and it can be put forward to the new plan at the same time. We will recommend the route that suits your land.

What is the bird tariff, and who pays it?

It is a contribution of a few hundred pounds per home towards managing visitor pressure on the protected coast. It is paid by the scheme, and when we take on the planning, we handle it along with every other cost of the application.

Do you buy land near Manston?

We look at it, but the airport plans can affect noise and future uses nearby, so we check the position carefully first.

Tell Us About Your Land in Thanet

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, in confidence.

About your land

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Sources

We update this page when new Housing Delivery Test results or local plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.