Selling Land in Lincolnshire

• 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 Lincolnshire 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.

The Fens, the Coast and the Drainage Boards

Much of the Fen country around Boston and Spalding, like the Isle of Axholme in the north, is low land kept dry by pumps, sluices and embanked rivers. The county council, as lead local flood authority, regulates ordinary watercourses outside internal drainage board areas, while inside them the boards act on its behalf. That is why the plans for Boston, South Holland and coastal East Lindsey look at the depth and hazard of water if a defence failed, not only at the flood zone a field lies in.

For a Fen field, a board's dyke along the boundary is part of the planning case, so a drainage strategy is usually the first study we pay for. Our flood risk guide explains the tests.

The Wash and the Humber

The Wash is the largest embayment in the UK, and with the north Norfolk coast it forms a Special Area of Conservation of 107,718 hectares. The Humber is the second largest coastal plain estuary in the UK, protected as a Special Area of Conservation of about 36,657 hectares. The habitats assessment behind the South East Lincolnshire plan found that people living in new homes could disturb the birds of the Wash and Gibraltar Point Special Protection Areas. Beside the Humber, North East Lincolnshire's assessment found that the arable fields where golden plover, curlew and pink-footed geese feed, well away from the mudflats, can count as functionally linked to the protected site.

The Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape

The Lincolnshire Wolds is the county's National Landscape, and East Lindsey, West Lindsey and North East Lincolnshire are the planning authorities within it. The Lincolnshire Wolds Countryside Service seeks to review every application within or affecting the designation, and since 26 December 2023 the councils have had a revised duty to seek to further its purpose. Larger proposals outside the boundary may still be weighed against it, so for a field in sight of the hills we commission landscape work before any layout is drawn.

The Best Farmland, and the Energy Schemes Taking It

Farmland quality runs through every plan here, and solar schemes large enough to be Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects are decided by the Secretary of State through a development consent order, not by the councils. In North Kesteven, Springwell was consented in April 2026 and Beacon Fen in August 2026, and Fosse Green has reached its decision stage. In April 2026 the county council reported that around 8,500 hectares of solar were operational or permitted across Lincolnshire, some 1.5% of its agricultural land.

For homes on a village edge, soil grade is one factor among several, and we record the land classification of every field we review so the point is answered early.

No Green Belt Anywhere: Settlement Lines and Wedges Instead

The government's Green Belt live tables for 2025 to 2026 record no Green Belt land at 31 March 2026 in any of the nine councils, across nearly 700,000 hectares between them. The plans here hold growth in with settlement boundaries, the developed footprint of villages and, in North East Lincolnshire's draft plan, eight strategic wedges instead. Grey belt therefore plays no part here, and policy S5 can reach well related land beyond those lines wherever unmet need is evidenced.

For anyone selling greenfield land in Lincolnshire, the village edge, the flood map and the council's supply count therefore weigh far more than any line drawn to keep towns apart.

Where supply is short, a well placed field can be tested by application now; where it is above five years, the new plans are the main route for open land; plots inside settlements have a route everywhere. In practice we look at:

1. An application beyond the edge, where supply is short. In East Lindsey, North East Lincolnshire, South Kesteven, South Holland and Boston, land well related to a town or village, with roads, schools and drainage to serve it, can rely on policy S5, the shortfall weighed as evidence of need alongside flooding and access.
2. Plots and yards inside settlements. Policy S4 favours approval within a town or village unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
3. The new plans. Larger holdings are best put forward to the plans now starting across the county. Our guide to calls for sites explains how land is put forward.
4. Larger Fen and Humber holdings. These can work where a flood model and a bird survey show which part could carry homes.

Across the boundary in West Lindsey, the same field would more likely be prepared for the new joint plan than sent in as an application today. Our option agreements guide explains how the price is set.