Selling Land in Leicester

Leicester City Council is a unitary authority: it writes the local plan and decides applications across the whole city, from Beaumont Leys and Belgrave to Knighton, Aylestone and Braunstone. The built-up area runs well past the city line, though. The adopted plan describes a Leicester Urban Area of about 650,000 people that takes in places such as Birstall, Thurmaston, Glenfield, Braunstone Town, Oadby, Wigston and Scraptoft, all in Blaby, Charnwood, Harborough or Oadby and Wigston.

• A small administrative area. The plan puts the council's area at nearly 7,500 hectares, with open space making up almost a quarter of it.
• No Green Belt. The government's Green Belt statistics group England's Green Belt around sixteen urban cores, and Leicester is not one of them. Open land in the city is protected as green wedge instead.
• A delivery result under 75%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 2,899 homes built over three years against 7,358 required, a result of 39%.
• On the Midland Main Line. The plan notes that the city is just over an hour from London by rail.

So the question for a landowner is rarely whether homes are needed, but where they can go and which council decides.

The plan sets out its own five-year supply calculation, with a base date of 1 April 2024. It spreads the past shortfall over the next five years (the Sedgefield approach) and adds a 20% buffer for past under-delivery:

The base date is now more than two years old.

The Inspectors Saw It Differently

In paragraph 59 of their February 2026 report the inspectors wrote that "Leicester cannot currently identify a five-year supply of deliverable housing land", without giving a figure in years. The likely reason is timing: the inspectors described the position before adoption, when 1,296 a year was not yet the adopted requirement, while the plan's table measures against it. For a landowner the gap matters less than it seems. Here the delivery result, not the supply figure, opens the national route for edge sites, and a margin of 299 homes on over 9,000 leaves little room if sites slip.

Why the Delivery Result Matters More Here

Policy S5, in the national framework as revised in August 2026, opens a route for homes outside a settlement's limits where unmet need is evidenced, if the site sits well against the settlement and infrastructure can serve it; a delivery result under 75% means that need is treated as evidenced. At 39%, Leicester is inside that band whatever its supply shows. A short supply, by contrast, is only evidence of unmet need, weighed case by case and never an automatic finding.

A further rule, used for decisions only since 1 July 2026, adds a 20% buffer where a plan adopted within the past five years set a requirement of no more than 80% of the standard method figure after examination against a framework predating December 2024. Leicester's plan was examined under the 2023 framework, but on the 1,588 a year the December 2025 statement gives the city, 1,296 is about 82%, above that line. A higher standard method figure in a later year could change that.

Beyond sites that already have permission, the biggest source of homes is the Central Development Area, where policy CDA01 plans 6,178 homes by 2036 across character areas such as the Railway Station, Old Town, Belgrave Gateway, St George's Cultural Quarter and New Walk. The plan seeks "residential-led regeneration" in Mansfield Street, St Margaret's and Wharf Street, and gives priority to brownfield land.

The four strategic housing sites are open land at the city edge, each in an area designated as green wedge before this plan:

• Former Western Park Golf Course (policy SL02), at least 412 homes, formerly part of the Kirby Frith green wedge.
• Land east of Ashton Green (policy SL03), at least 670 homes, formerly Thurcaston Road green wedge.
• Land north of the A46 bypass (policy SL04), at least 420 homes, formerly Castle Hill green wedge.
• Land west of Anstey Lane (policy SL05), at least 336 homes on three parcels, formerly Anstey Lane green wedge.

Each scheme must mitigate the loss of the wedge's four functions: stopping places merging, shaping the form of growth, giving the city a green lung and providing recreation. The inspectors accepted the loss at all four, judging the need for homes to outweigh the harm.

The Wedges That Remain

Policy OSSR01 protects the green wedges still on the policies map, allowing only open uses such as farming, forestry, allotments, outdoor sport, paths, renewable energy or minerals. Housing is not on the list, so homes on wedge land normally need a plan to redraw the boundary, as this plan did at these four sites.

Ending in 2036, the plan runs well short of the fifteen years national policy expects. The inspectors accepted it with a new policy, now Mo01, requiring a whole plan review "commenced immediately upon adoption", focused on housing, employment, Gypsy and Traveller sites, minerals and waste, and expected to be complete within three years. It also promises a new Local Development Scheme.

The Review Timetable as It Stood in February 2025

The latest Local Development Scheme we found, of February 2025, set these stages for the review:

That scheme expected the current plan to be adopted in August 2025, ten months before it was, so the new scheme may move these dates. Whatever the dates, the draft plan is the stage that shows which edge sites the council favours, so evidence ready before it counts for most.

The Next Delivery Result and the Next Supply Figure

The Housing Delivery Test is published once a year; the Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and at 39% Leicester sits in every band that carries a consequence. On supply, the plan expects a rolling five-year position, so a statement with a base date after April 2024 is the next document to watch for.

A Larger City Council, Decided and Then Paused

On 16 July 2026 the council announced the government's decision that from 1 April 2028 two unitary councils would serve the city, county and Rutland, the Leicester one taking in Oadby and Wigston and parts of Blaby, Charnwood and Harborough. On 7 September 2026 the government announced a review of its reorganisation decisions, including the one for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, and work to put it in place was paused, with elections in May 2027 going ahead on existing boundaries. Until anything changes, the city council decides applications inside today's city and the districts decide those around it.