Norfolk council area

Selling Land in Broadland

Checked on 29 September 2026

Broadland wraps around the north and east of Norwich, from Taverham on the Wensum to Acle on the edge of the Broads, and the Growth Triangle, planned for at least 10,000 homes, lies inside it. Its plan is shared with Norwich and South Norfolk, and so are its delivery and supply figures, but the sites, the settlement limits and the 21 neighbourhood plans that decide a field here are Broadland's own.

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In short

We buy land in Broadland and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

Broadland can show 4.85 years of housing land, short of the five years national policy expects. That shortfall is evidence of need which decisions must weigh, so a well placed field next to a town or village can make a case outside the local plan. It is not a guarantee. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from March 2024.

We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.

The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.

Broadland in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, its latest five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
111%
Measured jointly for the Greater Norwich Local Plan area (Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk), so this is the whole area's result. Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
4.85 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the Greater Norwich Local Plan requirement for Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk together, 1,940 homes a year after past delivery, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Broadland District, Norwich City and South Norfolk councils jointly, for the whole Greater Norwich Local Plan area (no separate figure is published for each council).
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
6,565
of 5,902 needed, April 2022 to March 2025, across the Greater Norwich Local Plan area (Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk)
Most recent strategic plan adopted
March 2024
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Latest step
Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 started: calls for sites held February to March and 15 June to 13 July 2026 (479 sites received), scoping consultation held 17 August to 28 September 2026; the councils' timetable of 30 June 2026 puts Gateway 1 on 30 October 2026, consultation on content and evidence from 8 June to 20 July 2027, submission on 19 October 2028 and adoption on 30 April 2029
Checked source

See how Broadland compares with the other 166 councils we cover

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

The Land We Look for in Broadland

Fields adjoining the settlement limits of Aylsham, Acle, Reepham, Taverham, Drayton or Hellesdon, above the river valley floors.
Land beside the Growth Triangle allocations or between Rackheath, Sprowston and the surrounding villages.
Paddocks and small sites next to villages with a primary school, for self-build or modest schemes.
Plots, gardens and backland inside settlement limits, where the principle of development is accepted.
Larger holdings north and east of Norwich that could shape the growth the next joint plan must find.

Our price is fixed on day one and set above the land's current-use value, and we pay for every piece of planning work: the nutrient budget and credits case, drainage and sewage capacity, access, landscape and the Broads setting. You farm or use the land until completion, and if no permission is secured the land stays yours and you owe us nothing. Our paddocks and small sites page covers the smaller end, and how it works sets out each stage.

The planning detail in full

From the Wensum to the Broads, Around the Edge of Norwich

Broadland District Council covers the suburbs and farmland that ring Norwich to the north and east. Its fringe parishes run from Taverham, Drayton and Hellesdon in the west, round through Old Catton and Sprowston, to Rackheath and Thorpe St Andrew. Further out lie Aylsham, the key service centres of Acle, Blofield, Brundall, Reepham and Wroxham, and the villages.

One joint plan and several of its own. The Greater Norwich Local Plan, adopted by Broadland in March 2024, works alongside the council's Development Management policies of August 2015, the Growth Triangle Area Action Plan of July 2016 and 21 neighbourhood plans.
Delivery counted for the whole area. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 put Greater Norwich at 111%, with 6,565 homes built against 5,902 required across Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk together. That is the joint area's result, not a Broadland score.
Broadland's own completions. The joint monitoring report of July 2026 records 806 net new homes in Broadland in 2024/25, after 923 in 2022/23, its highest year since the plan period began in 2018.

Broadland's 3,931 Homes in the Joint Five-Year Count

Supply is measured once for all of Greater Norwich: 4.85 years at 1 April 2025. The councils' April 2026 report on the next plan adds that the adopted requirement is 78% of the government's current figure, so from 1 July 2026 a 20% buffer applies to decisions, which the report says means "effectively requiring a six-year land supply". Our Norfolk page works through the joint sum; what matters here is Broadland's share. The assessment's site schedules list every Broadland site with its forecast year by year, and their yearly totals, which include a small allowance for windfall sites, come to 3,931 homes over the five years:

Greater Norwich Housing Land Supply Assessment, 1 April 2025, Appendix A to D, Broadland total including windfall.
Year	Homes forecast in Broadland
2025/26	606
2026/27	602
2027/28	767
2028/29	948
2029/30	1,008
Five years	3,931

Nearly half, 1,956 homes, falls in the last two years, where a forecast is least certain. The large sites show why:

Same source, Broadland schedule. Forecasts are the councils' and change each year.
Site	Planning status at April 2025	Homes still to build	Forecast to 2029/30
Land north of Sprowston and Old Catton, between Wroxham Road and St Faiths Road	Outline permission	3,520	300, starting in 2027/28
Land between Fir Covert Road and Reepham Road, Taverham	Reserved matters	1,530	550, starting in 2026/27
Land east of Broadland Business Park, Postwick	Reserved matters	334 of 520	250, at 50 a year
Land at Norwich Road, Aylsham	Full permission	252	140
Land south of Burgh Road and west of the A140, Aylsham	Allocation, with a hybrid application	250	108
Land west of Acle	Allocation	340	20, in 2029/30
Brook Farm and Laurel Farm, Thorpe St Andrew	Allocation	600	None

A Shortfall of Timing More Than of Sites

Broadland has allocated land; thousands of its homes are simply slow to start, and the councils blame the joint shortfall largely on nutrient neutrality. For a field outside the settlement limits, the gap counts under policy S5 as evidence of unmet need for a decision-maker to weigh; it is not an automatic finding, and S5 still asks for land well related to a settlement and served by infrastructure. The council already works this way. At the planning committee of 9 September 2026, officers reported on two self-build homes at 151 Taverham Road, on a plot mostly inside Taverham's settlement boundary with part lying outside it. They said the council "cannot currently demonstrate a 5 Year Housing Land Supply" and that S5 "allows for development outside settlement boundary in the event of an evidenced unmet need", and recommended approval. The draft minutes record that members voted unanimously to authorise approval. Within settlement limits policy S4 applies instead, with refusal only where the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

A Growth Triangle Planned for at Least 10,000 Homes

North east of the city lies the Growth Triangle, named after Old Catton, Sprowston, Rackheath and Thorpe St Andrew. Its Area Action Plan, adopted in July 2016, set a minimum of 7,000 new homes by 2026, "rising to at least 10,000 thereafter". Its plan period "ends in 2026", but the supply schedules still list its sites as Growth Triangle land. Three rows of the supply table above sit here: the land north of Sprowston and Old Catton, the land east of Broadland Business Park, and Brook Farm and Laurel Farm in Thorpe St Andrew (policy GT 6 of the action plan). The same schedules list North Rackheath and White House Farm, and the joint plan adds a site of about 205 homes west of Green Lane West in Rackheath.

The action plan also maps "two primary and seven secondary green infrastructure corridors" to link habitats across the triangle, so a field's place on that map matters.

What Is Left for Other Land

For larger holdings around the triangle the longer view counts: the April 2026 report says "a long-standing ambition to include a new settlement or settlements" is referenced in the adopted plan, and the review is where that choice will be made.

Taverham, Drayton and Hellesdon on the Wensum Side

West of the Growth Triangle, the joint plan's fringe site schedules give three parishes substantial growth for 2018 to 2038:

Greater Norwich Local Plan, Sites plan, urban fringe sites (adopted March 2024).
Parish	Homes committed, 2018 to 2038	Main allocations
Taverham	1,518	Land between Fir Covert Road and Reepham Road, about 1,400 in the plan; a smaller site of about 25
Hellesdon	1,151	Land at the former Royal Norwich Golf Club, about 1,000, already consented and under way; about 300 homes on the former hospital grounds
Drayton	415	One allocation of about 250 homes

The plan describes the Taverham site as about 1,400 homes with a primary school and medical centre; by April 2025 the supply schedules listed it at reserved matters stage for 1,530 homes. The River Wensum marks Taverham's western and southern edge, and the council's Development Management policy EN2 asks schemes to consider, and where appropriate protect, gaps between settlements, valley sides and important views, with the Wensum, Yare and Bure valleys among its examples.

The Wensum is also a Special Area of Conservation, and at Taverham Road nutrients had to be dealt with before the homes could be approved: the applicant secured mitigation by buying credits from Norfolk Environmental Credits, and officers found the credits "sufficiently mitigate the nutrients generated by the development". Nutrients become a cost rather than a bar, and we price that cost from the first appraisal.

Aylsham, Acle, Reepham and the Key Service Centres

Aylsham, the joint plan's main town in Broadland, grows on the two sites in the supply table, forecast to deliver 248 homes between them by 2029/30. The key service centres were given smaller numbers:

Greater Norwich Local Plan, Sites plan, key service centre sites (adopted March 2024).
Centre	Homes committed, 2018 to 2038	What the plan says
Acle	580	Sites of about 340, 140 and 30 homes; a secondary school and rail links to Norwich and Great Yarmouth
Blofield	289	No further allocations, because of prior commitments and capacity at the A47 roundabout
Brundall	337	No further allocations, because of infrastructure constraints including access to the A47
Reepham	203	Sites of about 100 and 20 homes; a high school and doctors' surgery
Wroxham	Five homes built 2018 to 2022	Traffic and the Broads "restrict further growth"

The Broads shape sites too. In the key service centre schedules, the boundary of the largest Acle allocation was drawn to "avoid substantial areas of flood risk" and to "provide open space to reduce leisure visits to the Broads".

The joint monitoring report finds that greenfield sites in key service centres and village clusters "have seen above target delivery", partly because "several of these settlements are outside the Nutrient Neutrality catchment area or have had permissions issued prior to its introduction". We check which side of a catchment line a site sits first.

Settlement Limits, School Clusters and the Broads Edge

Outside the fringe and the centres, four policies decide most applications, two of them Broadland's own:

Settlement limits. Policy GC2 of the Development Management policies says new development "will be accommodated within the settlement limits defined on the policies map". Outside them, schemes need an allocation or another policy of the plan.
School clusters. The joint plan groups villages by primary school catchment under policy 7.4 and names allocations in many of them. Its Broadland villages schedule includes about 60 homes at Cawston, 60 at Newton St Faith, 50 at Horsham St Faith, 50 and 25 at Coltishall, 45 at South Walsham, and 40 each at Buxton and Freethorpe.
Self-build. Policy 7.5 of the joint plan supports "small-scale residential development of up to 3 dwellings for self-build", a policy the Taverham Road report weighed.
Open space. Policy EN3 expects schemes of five homes or more to provide "at least 4 ha of informal open space per 1,000 population", plus allotments, which reduces how much of a field can carry homes.

Sewage capacity sets the timing in places: the villages schedule records "not enough capacity in Aylsham Water Recycling Centre permit to accommodate development", noted against the Buxton allocation, and describes Freethorpe's works as "currently flow non-compliant".

Twenty-One Neighbourhood Plans

Twenty-one Broadland parishes have neighbourhood plans. Each forms part of the development plan once made, so a parish's own design, green space or settlement gap policies can matter as much as the district's.

Where the Broads Begin

The council's Development Management policies apply to "Broadland District excluding the Broads Authority Executive Area": inside that boundary the Broads Authority is the planning authority, not the council. Outside it, policy EN2 still asks schemes to weigh "important views including the setting of the Broads Area". Our Norfolk page covers the Broads Authority's own plan.

A Timetable to 2029, and a Triangle Plan Written to 2026

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026, and while the three councils share a plan the test scores Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk as one. At 111% none of the test's consequences applies to the area. Under 75%, policy S5 would treat unmet need as evidenced; under 85% the supply sum would take a 20% buffer; under 95% an action plan would be due.

The Next Joint Supply Assessment

The current assessment runs from 1 April 2025, and none from a later base date had been published by 29 September 2026. We would not predict the next figure, but the 20% buffer for decisions makes five years harder to show for an application than the headline suggests.

The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045

The councils published their timetable for the next plan on 30 June 2026, with a scoping consultation that ran from 17 August to 28 September 2026:

Published by the three councils on 30 June 2026. The dates are theirs and may move.
Stage	Timetable of June 2026
Gateway 1 self-assessment	30 October 2026
Consultation on the plan's proposed content and evidence	8 June to 20 July 2027
Gateway 2	2 November 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	3 April to 29 May 2028
Submission and examination	19 October 2028 to 21 March 2029
Adoption	30 April 2029

The 2027 consultation on content and evidence comes before the consultation on the proposed plan, timetabled for 2028, so evidence for Broadland land does most good if it is ready by then, while land next to a settlement limit can be looked at now. The triangle's action plan period ends in 2026, and the 2045 plan will decide what follows it. Our guide to calls for sites and local plan stages explains each step.

Reorganisation is on hold. On 7 September 2026 the government launched a review and said its decisions for Norfolk and three other counties had been withdrawn "in light of new legal advice", confirming that local elections in May 2027 would go ahead on existing council boundaries; Broadland remains the planning authority.

Questions About Land in Broadland

My field is just outside Aylsham's settlement limit. Does the Greater Norwich shortfall help it?

It can. Under policy S5 the joint gap is weighed as evidence of unmet need, and council officers have already applied S5 to land partly beyond a settlement boundary. The field must still relate well to the town, with workable access and sewage capacity, and the plan names Aylsham's treatment works as a constraint.

The Growth Triangle plan was written to run to 2026. Does that open up land around Rackheath and Sprowston?

Not by itself. The triangle's sites stay in the councils' supply count, and land outside them is judged against the settlement limits and, while supply is short, policy S5. Larger holdings around the triangle are best put forward for the Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045.

Our land near Taverham drains to the Wensum. Can homes still be built?

Yes, where the nutrients are dealt with. The council has accepted credits from Norfolk Environmental Credits as mitigation. The cost goes into our appraisal and we pay for the nutrient work.

Blofield and Brundall were given no further allocations. Is there any point putting land forward there?

There can be, but the plan points to the A47 junctions as the reason for holding back, so access is the first test. Small sites inside the settlement limits and self-build plots of up to three homes follow different rules.

Greater Norwich passes the delivery test. Does that mean Broadland has enough land?

No. The result belongs to Greater Norwich as a whole and measures homes already built. Supply looks forward, and there the area shows 4.85 years.

What price will you pay for my land?

We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.

When would I be paid?

You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.

Tell Us About Your Land in Broadland

It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly.

We reply within 2 working days, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.