Selling Land in Leicestershire

• It sits next to, or is well related to, an existing town or village.
• A safe access onto a public road is possible, even if it needs work.
• Most of the land is outside the highest flood risk zone.
• It is not covered by a strong designation such as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
• It is about 2 acres or more, or part of a larger holding.
• Everyone who owns it is willing to consider one clear, agreed price.

If your land does not tick every box, ask anyway. Many of the sites we take on have a problem to solve, whether that is access, drainage, a tenancy or an awkward boundary, and solving those problems is our job.

1. A first conversation. You call us or send the form on this page. We need only your postcode, your name and a phone number or email.
2. A free desktop review. Within a few days we look at your land, the planning position in Leicestershire and the routes open to it, and tell you plainly whether it suits us. The review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
3. Heads of terms and the option agreement. If it suits, we agree a price with you in writing, then the option agreement itself. We contribute to your solicitor's and land agent's fees, so it costs you nothing to get it done properly.
4. The planning work, at our cost. We pay for the surveys, the design, the planning application and any appeal. You carry on farming, grazing or letting the land as you do now.
5. Completion. If planning 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.

How selling land for development works, step by step gives the detail of each stage and how long it usually takes.

Leicester's Unmet Need

Leicester City Council adopted its local plan in June 2026. The plan does not meet all of the city's own need, and for several years the councils have used statements of common ground to share the shortfall among the districts. The latest one, from December 2025, was updated after the government changed its housing need method, which lowered the city's figure and raised most of the districts' own. It puts the remaining unmet need at 2,455 homes up to 2036 and a further 8,230 from 2036 to 2046. Those figures do not apply to plans already submitted or prepared under the transitional arrangements, which the county council's cabinet report of February 2026 names as the plans for Leicester, Charnwood, Melton and Harborough, so those four rest on the earlier distribution from 2022. For landowners the point is that land close to Leicester, in districts taking a share, has a clear policy reason to be considered in the next round of plans.

Green Wedges and Separation

Without a Green Belt, the main protection for open land around Leicester is the green wedge. These run between the city and places such as Birstall, Glenfield, Oadby and Thurmaston, and are protected in local plans. Several districts also protect gaps between neighbouring towns and villages. Land in a green wedge is harder to bring forward, but boundaries are reviewed when plans are prepared.

The River Mease and the National Forest

The River Mease, in the far west of the county, is a Special Area of Conservation. It is sensitive to phosphates, so new homes that drain to sewage works in its catchment must be nutrient neutral. North West Leicestershire says its current contribution scheme has no capacity left for places such as Donisthorpe and Appleby Magna, and homes around Ashby de la Zouch, Measham and Packington could be affected until a scheme to pump treated flows out of the catchment, put back to 2027, is complete. The same area lies within the National Forest, where new development is expected to include tree planting and woodland.

The Soar, the Wreake and the Sence

The Soar runs north through Leicester and Loughborough to the Trent, and its flood plain is wide in places. The Wreake, the Sence and many smaller brooks also flood. Land in Flood Zones 2 and 3 faces the sequential test. A site with one low corner can often still work, with the homes on the higher ground. More is set out in our guide to flood risk.

Landscape and Heritage

Charnwood Forest, the high, rocky ground between Loughborough and Coalville, is treated by the councils as a sensitive landscape. The county also has many conservation areas, listed churches and country houses, and the registered battlefield at Bosworth.

For an owner selling land near Loughborough or Coalville, Charnwood Forest is the constraint to check first; around Ashby de la Zouch and Measham it is the Mease, and close to Leicester it is the green wedge.

In Charnwood and Leicester, the delivery result means unmet need is treated as evidenced. That holds in the city whatever the 5.16 years of land in its adopted plan, but green wedge policy still weighs against open land at its edge. In Blaby, Harborough and Hinckley and Bosworth, a supply short of five years is evidence of unmet need to weigh, not an automatic finding, and with no Green Belt, S5 can reach any settlement edge in those three districts and Charnwood. In Melton, North West Leicestershire and Oadby and Wigston, which report five years or more, the stronger route is usually a local plan. The main routes are:

1. A planning application where delivery or supply is short. In those four districts, a well-located site next to a town or larger village can be put forward now, if it deals properly with landscape, flooding, access and infrastructure. Our guide to the 2026 NPPF explains the S5 balance.
2. Local plan allocation. Harborough and Oadby and Wigston are at examination, with hearings in November 2026, and Melton's partial update was examined in September. Blaby, North West Leicestershire and Hinckley and Bosworth published final drafts in summer 2026. Our local plan guide explains the stages in more detail.
3. Sites inside towns and villages. Within a settlement's built-up area, policy S4 leans towards approval wherever the council sits.
4. Neighbourhood plans. Many Leicestershire villages have neighbourhood plans, and some allocate small housing sites.
5. Previously developed land. Old yards, workshops and former industrial sites, which national policy supports reusing.
6. Sites near stations. National policy supports higher density homes close to well-connected stations. Whether that applies depends on the station and its service.

Leicestershire is a county where a small change in where your land sits can change the route to planning. A field in Charnwood and a similar field over the boundary in Melton may follow quite different paths, and our review will tell you which one applies.