Selling Land in Blaby

• Fields that adjoin the built edge of Blaby, Countesthorpe, Narborough, Whetstone or Enderby.
• Land on the suburban fringe at Glenfield, Kirby Muxloe, Leicester Forest East or Glen Parva.
• Paddocks and small sites beside Cosby, Huncote, Littlethorpe or Sapcote that would suit a modest scheme.
• Former commercial, leisure or yard sites next to a settlement.
• Land with an existing road frontage, or a realistic route to one.
• Larger holdings that could add to the growth the new plan already expects.

Land in a Green Wedge or open countryside faces a stiffer test, and we will say so plainly. Where we go ahead, the price is agreed at the start, we pay for every part of the planning work, and we contribute towards your own solicitor and land agent so getting the paperwork done properly costs you nothing.

• 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.

Because Blaby scored above 75%, the delivery test on its own does not bring the unmet need route in policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework into play. A shortfall in the five-year supply of deliverable sites counts as evidence of unmet need in its own right, though, and at under three years that evidence is plain. The council accepts the consequence in its own words: its Local Plan questions and answers say the shortage "leaves the district at risk of speculative development for a temporary period until the Local Plan is adopted".

Two Recent Appeals

In November 2025 an inspector allowed up to 155 homes, 39 of them affordable, on open countryside outside the settlement boundary at Littlethorpe. The inspector found the landscape harm acceptable, noting that the site sits against existing development without merging with Narborough.

In July 2026, after a public inquiry in May, a second inspector allowed up to 200 homes at Blaby Golf Centre on Lutterworth Road, a scheme the planning committee had refused in July 2025. The inspector described a "severe shortfall" in land supply and found the homes would do "very little harm" to the Green Wedge there. The council said it was disappointed.

Both decisions came on land outside settlement boundaries, so for anyone selling land on the edge of a Blaby village they are the clearest sign of how the shortfall is weighed at appeal.

Why You May See 2.78 Years or 2.45 Years

The council's own figure is 2.78 years, calculated from 539 homes a year plus a 5% buffer and a deliverable supply of 1,575 homes between April 2025 and March 2030. Reporting of the Littlethorpe decision gives that inspector's figure as 2.45 years. At appeal an inspector tests the council's list site by site and can strike out any without clear evidence of delivery, which usually gives a lower number. For a landowner the gap changes nothing: both are far below five years.

How We Judge a Field on the Edge of a Blaby Village

1. Does it sit against the village? A field bounded by gardens, a road or a recreation ground reads as part of the settlement; one out in open country does not.
2. Does it keep villages apart? Green Wedges exist to stop settlements merging and to give towns a green lung. A site inside one is harder, but not ruled out.
3. Can traffic get in and out safely? On village lanes this often decides the case, so we check it first.
4. Is the benefit clear? Affordable homes, open space and a sensible scale all count in the S5 balance.

How S5 treats unmet need is covered in our guide to the 2026 National Planning Policy Framework.

Five parts of the district have neighbourhood plans, which count alongside the council's own when applications are decided:

• Blaby, following a referendum on 1 February 2018.
• Leicester Forest East, made by the council on 19 July 2022.
• Cosby, following a referendum on 24 November 2022.
• Glenfield, adopted on 28 November 2023.
• Fosse Villages, made on 30 January 2024.

Where a neighbourhood plan draws a village boundary or names local green spaces, we read it first, because it often shows which edge of a village is more acceptable. It does not switch off national policy where supply is short, so well placed land in these parishes still deserves a proper look.

Scale matters too: suburbs next to the city have buses and services close by, while smaller villages are judged on whether new homes suit their size.