Selling Land in Boston

• Fields on the edges of Boston, Wyberton and Fishtoft, the borough's Sub-Regional Centre.
• Land beside Kirton, Sutterton or Swineshead, the main service centres.
• Plots, yards and former farm buildings inside village boundaries.
• Reserve sites named in Policy 12 of the 2019 plan.
• Larger holdings to put forward to the new joint plan.

Our farmland page shows how we approach fields like those around Boston. We agree the price when the option is signed, above the land's value as farmland today, and fund every survey, flood model and application at our own risk. You go on farming until completion; if permission is refused, you keep the land and owe us 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.

Policy 1 sorts every settlement into a tier, and the tier sets what each can take inside its settlement boundary.

Inside a boundary, policy S4 of the August 2026 national framework expects approval unless the adverse effects of a scheme would substantially outweigh what it brings. Beyond it, the countryside wording applies and policy S5 is the national route, which the supply section below turns to.

For an owner in Boston, the tier of the nearest settlement and the line of its boundary are the first two facts that tell us what a site could become: a field beside Kirton or Swineshead starts from a stronger position than one beside Wrangle or Freiston.

At 127% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, Boston is clear of every consequence of the government's delivery test, from the action plan required under 95% to the 20% buffer under 85% and, under 75%, unmet need being treated as evidenced for policy S5. Its land supply tells a different story. The council's statement at 31 March 2026 finds 4.8 years, measured against the standard method, 356 homes a year, with the shortfall since 2011 spread by the Liverpool method, plus a 5% buffer, and concludes there are insufficient deliverable sites to meet requirements to March 2031.

The plan turned five on 8 March 2024. The joint committee had completed its five-year review and found no requirement to update the plan at that time, but the statement explains that national policy changes and the new standard method mean supply is now tested against 356 homes a year.

From 2011 to 2026 the borough built 4,108 homes net against 4,742 required, with most of the 634-home gap built up before 2016; completions reached 410 in 2025 to 2026. The council spreads it over the rest of the plan period by the Liverpool method, because the plan's provision is back-loaded.

For a field just outside Kirton, Sutterton or Swineshead, that 75-home gap is what opens policy S5: evidence of unmet need, to be weighed with flood risk, access and drainage rather than treated as a finding, on land well related to the village and served by roads, schools and drainage with capacity.

Thirteen Reserve Sites and a November 2026 Report

Policy 12 holds 13 reserve sites for housing across Boston and South Holland, with release triggered by each council's Housing Delivery Test result; both councils have performed well against the test, so no release has been required. A report prepared for the joint committee's meeting scheduled for 10 November 2026 points out that the reserve sites lie within settlement boundaries, so policy S4 is relevant to them, and that neither council can currently demonstrate a five-year supply. It recommends the committee note that Policy 12 remains part of the adopted plan, but that its timing restriction be given very limited weight insofar as it is materially inconsistent with policy S4. The report does not amend the policy, release the sites or predetermine any application. If you own a reserve site in the Boston half of the plan area, what the committee does with it could change when an application is worth making.

On 27 May 2026 the joint committee was asked to endorse the start of work on the next joint plan for the two councils, under a system that compresses plan production into a mandatory 30-month period, and to work to a notice of intention no later than December 2026, the latest date the government allows. East Lindsey is preparing its own, separate plan. Because the joint committee was formed by statutory instrument, the Secretary of State, not the two full councils, has the final say on adopting the plan.

The Stages in the Project Initiation Document

The same project initiation document set the call for sites and initial site assessment for May to June 2026, after the joint planning unit's call for sites page had asked for submissions before 31 March 2026 and suggested owners bear the settlement hierarchy in mind when choosing what size of site to put forward. Our call for sites guide explains how a submission is judged.

Reserve Sites, Edge Fields and the First Consultation

The joint committee is scheduled to consider the reserve sites report on 10 November 2026. The council publishes a supply statement each year at a 31 March base date, and the Housing Delivery Test follows the Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026. The government's letter of 29 October 2026, which withdrew its July decision on new unitary councils for Lincolnshire while every proposal is considered again, said that the borough's May 2027 elections would still be held for the existing council, so Boston Borough Council remains the planning authority meanwhile.

• Reserve sites depend on how the committee treats the November 2026 report.
• Fields just beyond a boundary can be considered now, while supply stands below five years.
• Larger holdings are best prepared for the first consultation, with flood and drainage evidence in hand.