Selling Land in North West Leicestershire

• Fields on the edge of the Coalville urban area, from Whitwick and Thringstone to Hugglescote and Ellistown.
• Land beside Ashby de la Zouch or Castle Donington, checked early for the River Mease and airport noise.
• Edges of Ibstock, Kegworth and Measham, the local service centres.
• Plots, yards and former commercial or colliery land inside settlements.
• Paddocks and small sites that could meet a village's own need.
• Larger holdings that could suit the next plan review.

Land in an Area of Separation, or in the Mease catchment before the pumping scheme runs, faces extra hurdles, and we will be clear about them. When we proceed, you know the price from the outset, every planning cost falls to us, and we make a contribution to your own solicitor's and land agent's fees so that getting the legal side right 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.

The council now tests its supply against the standard method, and says it will keep doing so until the new plan's own requirement is adopted. Its interim five-year supply note, published on the council's supply page, sets out the sum:

Two points stand out. The council counts its building since April 2024, the start of the new plan period, against the standard method and takes the surplus off what is still needed. Without that credit, the 3,120 homes would fall short of the 3,287 requirement. The note is also interim: the council says supply forms for every allocation and other site it counts will be completed and published in an updated statement in the autumn.

Why the Standard Method Figure Moved

The council's housing background paper records local housing need of 617 homes a year in May 2025, while the April 2026 note uses 626. The two are not in conflict. The government's formula is rerun each year with fresh figures on house prices, earnings and the size of the housing stock, which most likely explains the rise. For a landowner, the later figure is the one that counts, and it is slightly harder for the council to meet.

Where That Leaves Land Beyond the Limits to Development

Under the national framework as revised in August 2026, policy S5 backs homes outside a settlement only where there is evidence that need is going unmet, and the district currently offers neither of the usual kinds: a Housing Delivery Test score below 75%, or less than five years of deliverable land. At 184% and 5.1 years, neither applies today. An application on open land outside the limits to development therefore has no shortfall to lean on. The routes open today are plots within a settlement, where policy S4 tilts the balance towards permission and only harm that would substantially outweigh the benefits justifies a refusal, together with previously developed land and small rural schemes for a village's own need. For most fields, the way in is the plan.

Policy S1 of the Proposed Submission Local Plan sets a requirement of 690 homes a year, 12,420 over 2024 to 2042, taken from the Leicester and Leicestershire statement of common ground of December 2025. That is 43.5% above the 481 a year of the current plan. The plan puts the standard method at 617 a year in May 2025 and, while noting that the district has only a limited functional relationship with Leicester, says the strength of its economy informed the higher figure, with more homes giving a better balance between jobs and homes.

How the Plan Meets It

The housing background paper takes off the 1,481 homes already built, leaving 10,939, and adds a 10% margin for flexibility, which leaves 12,033 to find. Against that it counts 4,121 homes on major sites with permission, 8,123 on new allocations and 906 on small sites, a total of 13,150. The largest pieces are:

Isley Woodhouse

The new settlement lies south of East Midlands Airport and Donington Park, and is put forward by Harworth Group and Caesarea Development Holdings. The background paper expects 4,250 homes in all, with 1,950 built by 2042, and lists an outline application, reference 25/00865/OUTM, as pending. The council has also commissioned a separation study for Diseworth and a noise assessment covering Isley Woodhouse and Castle Donington, which shows the questions the examination is likely to test.

One Requirement, Two Ways of Phasing It

There is a tension between the plan and its own evidence. Policy S1 says 690 a year is the annual figure for five-year supply and delivery test purposes. The background paper, because the requirement jumps so far and the new settlement delivers late, sets out a stepped trajectory instead: 500 homes in 2026/27, rising by 50 a year to 650 in 2029/30, then 690 in 2030/31 and 750 a year for the six years to 2036/37, before easing back to 690 by the end of the plan. The interim supply note refers to "the 690/stepped requirement" without choosing. Which version the inspector accepts will decide how hard the council's supply test is once the plan is adopted. A flat 690 would be tougher than today's 626; a stepped figure would be easier in the first years.

Employment is part of the same picture. The plan provides for about 1.09 million square metres of strategic warehousing, 44% of the total need for Leicester and Leicestershire, two thirds of it around junctions 23a and 24 of the M1 and junction 1 of the A50.

For an owner selling land near Coalville, Ashby de la Zouch or Castle Donington, a requirement 43.5% above the current plan is the clearest sign that the council needs more land than before, and the examination will decide which sites carry it.

The plan's own timetable puts submission to the Secretary of State in November 2026, the examination in March 2027 and adoption in autumn or winter 2027. It follows a long run of consultations, listed by the council, from the first issues stage in 2018 to a round on additional housing and employment sites in spring 2025. The examination is where the new settlement, the stepped requirement and any omitted sites will be tested.

A Surplus of 63 Homes, a Cushion on Delivery, and the Mease

Supply is the figure to watch. The council has promised an updated statement for autumn 2026, with evidence for each site. With a surplus of only 63 homes, a modest change in the timing of a few large sites could move the figure either way. If it fell below five years, policy S5 would give well placed land outside the settlements evidence of unmet need to rely on. Rather than guess, we will read the statement when it appears.

Delivery has room to spare. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 arrived on 17 August 2026, and the government brings out a new edition each year. The district's 184% leaves a wide cushion above every threshold, and the 1,481 homes built in the two years to March 2026 are an early sign of continued strong building.

The pumping scheme's April 2027 date matters to land around Ashby and Measham. Separately, reorganisation of councils across Leicestershire is paused while the government reviews it, and on 21 September 2026 the district joined four other councils in a pre-action letter questioning the decision. The district council is preparing the plan in the meantime.

Plan Land at Examination, Other Land Ready for a Change

Land that is already in the plan will be decided at examination. Land outside it is best prepared now, with evidence ready for any change in the supply position and for the next review. The council's last call for sites closed in October 2020, but its land availability page still takes submissions for future assessments. Our Leicestershire page sets the district beside the rest of the county.