Selling Land in Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth Borough Council covers a narrow strip of east Norfolk between the North Sea and the Broads: 17,000 hectares, 24 kilometres of coastline and 99,537 people in 2021, according to its adopted plan, or 99,747 in its 2045 scoping document. About 65% live in Great Yarmouth, Gorleston-on-Sea and Bradwell; the rest in Caister-on-Sea, the largest village, and smaller ones.

• Two planning authorities. Where the Broads lie inside the borough, the Broads Authority, not the borough council, decides applications.
• A port for offshore energy. The port serves offshore wind and the southern North Sea gas fields, and policy URB16 rules out housing at South Denes.
• Water on every side. Much of the town is at risk of flooding, parts of the coast are eroding, and a corner of the Norfolk Coast National Landscape lies north of Winterton-on-Sea.

The borough is its own housing market area and meets all its need inside its boundary, where the sea, the Broads and the best soils narrow the choice. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 992 homes against 1,074 required, a result of 92%, which calls only for an action plan.

Table A8.4 of the adopted plan is the council's supply calculation, from 1 April 2026:

The 102 is arithmetic: 310 homes were built in 2024/25 and 294 are expected in 2025/26, each short of the 353 step. The margin, 2,837 less 2,338, is 499 homes, a forecast depending on sites starting on time; start dates at Belton, Hemsby, Ormesby St Margaret and Hopton-on-Sea were pushed back at the examination.

The council's last standalone statement, at 1 April 2024, found 5.82 years but measured something different: the replaced plans' level 363 a year with a 5% buffer, earned by delivery of 118%. Table A8.4 uses the stepped requirement, the 102-home shortfall and a 20% buffer from a base two years later, and the inspectors framed it for decisions from adoption, so it is the figure that counts.

What the Margin Means for a Field

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework is the route for homes on land well related to a settlement and served by infrastructure where unmet need is evidenced. Need counts as evidenced where the delivery result falls below 75%, while a supply under five years is evidence of need to be weighed rather than an automatic finding. With 92% and 6.06 years, neither applies, so although there is no Green Belt, fields beyond the limits are for now mainly a matter for the plans.

Outside the development limits, policy OSS3 allows development only on allocated land, for farming, forestry, utilities or roads, or under another policy. The limits were redrawn for this plan: land with a live permission came inside, land tied to a lapsed permission, as beside Whitehorn Lodge at Belton, stayed out, and allocations sit outside so each is built to its own policy. Policy NAT8 keeps eight gaps open, from Great Yarmouth and Caister-on-Sea to Hopton-on-Sea and Corton in East Suffolk. The routes:

1. Inside the limits. Plots, brownfield yards and backland are judged under policy S4 of the national framework: approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. For brownfield land in a flood zone in Great Yarmouth or Gorleston, policy CLC2 limits the sequential test to brownfield sites inside that town's limits.
2. Rural exception sites. Policy HOU3 allows schemes outside the limits where local need is shown, with more than half the homes affordable and only as many market homes as viability requires.
3. Small gaps and old buildings. Policy RUR2 allows up to two self-build homes in a clear gap in a built-up area outside the limits, with homes on two sides; policy RUR3 allows conversion of rural buildings of heritage or landscape value.
4. Through the plans. Open fields beyond the limits come forward through allocation, now in Great Yarmouth 2045.

Because the plan meets only 72% of the standard method figure, the inspectors concluded that the council "will need to commence preparation of a new plan under the new plan-making system immediately following the adoption of this Plan", to meet a government backstop of 31 October 2026. The council's timetable, updated on 25 September 2026, sets out the stages:

The council's scoping document says what Great Yarmouth 2045 will be: a plan for 2026 to 2045 for the borough outside the Broads, begun with a notice of intention on 30 June 2026 under the 30-month system and focused on site allocations and local spatial policies, with general policies left to the national framework. The inspectors tested 380 against the December 2024 standard method figure of 525; the scoping document says the method was revised in December 2025 and puts the need at 548 homes a year, calculated in July 2026, 168 above the 2042 plan's average. The later figure reflects the revised method and a later affordability ratio; 380 is 69% of it, so the 20% buffer holds either way, and the new plan starts from 548.

No decision has been made on where that growth goes. The document puts six options to consultation: the 2042 plan's pattern, expanding Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, Bradwell and Caister-on-Sea, new settlements, with locations invited, village clusters, infill within settlement boundaries, and brownfield first, which it says cannot meet need alone. A Norfolk-wide capacity study will test new settlements, settlement boundaries may be reviewed, and new flood risk evidence may lead to a review of the Coastal Change Management Area.

Its call for sites was set to run alongside it, for housing, employment, infrastructure, open space and community uses, with a threshold of five homes or 0.25 hectares. Each submission goes through a Stage 2 assessment under the Norfolk Strategic Planning Framework method, shortlisted sites through Stage 3, and the content and evidence consultation is to show every submitted site and its initial suitability. Brownfield sites, plots inside the limits and exception sites can be looked at now; fields need their evidence ready for that consultation. Our guide to calls for sites and local plan stages explains what follows.

Delivery, Supply and the Levy

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026. Below 85%, a result would bring the 20% buffer decisions here carry already; below 75%, unmet need would be treated as evidenced under policy S5, a route for settlement-edge land. No date is published for the next supply statement. Its levy page records the Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule approved by full council on 24 September 2026, preliminarily scheduled to take effect on 1 February 2027.

On 7 September 2026 the government withdrew its Norfolk reorganisation decision, with Essex, Hampshire and Suffolk, for a review, so the borough council remains the body preparing Great Yarmouth 2045.