Norfolk council area

Selling Land in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Checked on 29 September 2026

King's Lynn and West Norfolk runs from Hunstanton down the eastern shore of the Wash and across the fens to the Brecks, and much of its western half is low-lying fenland defended from the sea and the Great Ouse. Its Local Plan, adopted in March 2025, provides for at least 12,438 homes to 2040, and the council reports 6.2 years of housing land for deciding applications. A replacement plan to 2044 has begun, with more than 750 submissions to its 2026 call for sites.

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In short

We buy land in King's Lynn and West Norfolk and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

King's Lynn and West Norfolk can show 6.2 years of housing land, more than the five years national policy expects, and built 100% of the homes it needed in the government's latest count. So the surest routes here are the local plan, for land on the edge of towns and villages, and sites within them, where national policy generally supports new homes. Its local plan dates from March 2025.

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.

King's Lynn and West Norfolk 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
100%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
6.2 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the Local Plan's 554 homes a year, with a 5% buffer to 30 June 2026 and 20% from 1 July 2026 for decisions (6.9 years with 5% throughout, the council's figure for plan-making). Stated by Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,684
of 1,692 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
March 2025
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Latest step
Local Plan 2021 to 2040 adopted 27 March 2025; notice of a new plan to 2044 published 15 June 2026; call for sites held 29 January to 1 May 2026 and again from 1 to 29 September 2026 alongside a scoping consultation; the council's timetable of June 2026 puts Gateway 1 on 30 October 2026, draft plan consultation from 17 May to 30 June 2027, submission on 15 November 2028 and adoption on 31 May 2029
Checked source

See how King's Lynn and West Norfolk 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 King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Fields adjoining King's Lynn, Downham Market or the Wisbech fringe, within LP02's limits and mostly in Flood Zone 1.
Land beside Heacham, Snettisham, Dersingham, Watlington or another Key Rural Service Centre for up to 25 homes, outside the National Landscape and its setting.
Plots, gardens, yards and backland inside any settlement boundary.
Larger holdings near the towns, on lower flood risk land, for the next plan.
Village-edge land for a rural exception scheme.

With five years of land and a delivery result clearing every threshold, the plan is the main route for larger fields here. It is still worth talking to us: an LP02 site of the right size can go in as an application now, and we pay for the evidence a larger site needs before the draft plan. Your price is agreed at the start, above current-use value; you keep using the land, and if permission never comes it stays yours with nothing owed. Our how it works page sets out the stages, and our Norfolk page sets the borough beside its neighbours.

The planning detail in full

The Wash, the Fens and Three Market Towns

The adopted plan describes a borough reaching "through the Marshlands, Fens and Brecks to the borders of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk". Its inspectors called it the fourth largest district in England, some 550 square miles with around 152,000 people.

Six tiers. King's Lynn, with the West Winch growth area, is the sub-regional centre; Downham Market, Hunstanton and the east Wisbech urban extension are the Main Towns; North and South Wootton, Walsoken and West Winch village are among the settlements next to them; then Key Rural Service Centres such as Heacham and Snettisham, and two tiers of smaller villages.
A protected coast. The plan notes designations "extending across the North Norfolk Coast and The Wash", and that the borough "contains part of the Norfolk Coast National Landscape, which requires protection".
Delivery on target. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 1,684 homes built over three years against 1,692 required, a result of 100%.

The plan's strategy and settlement policies draw no Green Belt, so grey belt tests play no part. A field turns on its tier, its flood depth and its distance from the coast.

Two Supply Figures From One List of Sites

The council's supply page gives two answers for the five years from 1 April 2026: 6.9 years "for plan-making (that is, preparation of the next Local Plan)" and 6.2 years "for decision making (that is, determining planning applications)". The trajectory spreadsheet behind them shows the sites are the same in both; only the buffer changes.

Source: the council's trajectory data 2025 to 2026, rounded. The allocation row adds its Local Plan and neighbourhood plan lines; that sum is ours.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Homes with permission on unallocated sites	1,801, cut by a 7% lapse rate to about 1,675
Local Plan and neighbourhood plan allocations	1,576 with permission and 362 without
Windfall allowance	408, counted only in the last two years
Deliverable supply	About 4,021 homes
Requirement	554 homes a year, 2,770 over five years
With a 5% buffer, for plan-making	About 2,909 homes: 6.9 years
With 5% to 30 June 2026 and 20% after, for decisions	About 3,220 homes: 6.2 years
With 20% for the whole year	About 3,324 homes: just over six years

Since 1 July 2026 national policy applies 20%, only when applications are decided, to a requirement adopted in the past five years that was tested against a framework older than December 2024 and sits at or below four fifths of the government's standard method figure. This plan was adopted in March 2025 after testing against the July 2021 framework, and the spreadsheet's decisions column cites that rule, paragraph 78(c). By our reading of its formula, the council applies 5% for the first quarter and 20% for the other three, so the decisions figure falls between the other two.

What More Than Five Years Does to a Field on the Edge

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 gives homes a way forward where a site sits well against a settlement, infrastructure can serve it and unmet need is evidenced. A delivery result under 75% counts as that evidence on its own; a supply short of five years is evidence to be weighed rather than an automatic finding. At 100% and 6.2 years, neither applies, and for five years after adoption a higher standard method figure is not itself evidence of unmet need while the council shows five years and a result above 75%. For most edge fields the route is the borough's own policy LP02 or the next plan.

The 2025 Plan: At Least 12,438 Homes, and Where the Permissions Are

The inspectors' report of 21 February 2025 set local need at 554 homes a year, 10,526 over the 19 years from 2021 to 2040. Policy LP01 of the adopted plan provides for "a minimum of 12,438 dwellings"; the inspectors record a windfall allowance of 3,081 homes within it. The largest allocations and how far each has got:

Source: the council's trajectory data 2025 to 2026.
Allocation	Homes	Stage	In the five-year count
E2.1 West Winch, land west of Constitution Hill, North Runcton	Up to 1,110, with a primary school and local centre	Outline permission, 16 May 2025	100
E3.1 South Wootton, off Edward Benefer Way	Up to 450, in a mixed-use urban extension	Under way	239
F1.4 Downham Market, south of Denver Hill	Up to 300	Under way	223
F1.3 Downham Market north east, Bridle Lane	226, plus 70 in a second phase	Under way	183 and 55
E1.6 King's Lynn, Queen Mary Road, Gaywood	226	Under way	139
F2.3 Hunstanton, Hornbeam Drive	100, including housing with care	Under way	53

On the Wisbech fringe, a hybrid permission of April 2023 covers 325 homes off Sandy Lane, Walsoken, of which the trajectory counts 28 in its five years.

LP02: Land Beside the Boundary, Up to a Size for Each Tier

Policy LP02 covers land the plan does not allocate. Inside any development boundary, homes are supported if they meet the plan's other policies. In tiers 1 to 4 it goes further: "proposals for new residential development outside of, but adjoining development boundaries, as defined on the Policies Map, will be supported", subject to criteria that include staying out of the Norfolk Coast National Landscape and its setting. Above a size, a scheme "must be brought forward as allocations through the Local Plan or Neighbourhood Plans":

Local Plan 2021 to 2040, policy LP02.
Where the land adjoins	Largest scheme LP02 supports
King's Lynn	100 homes
Downham Market and Wisbech	75 homes
Hunstanton	50 homes
Settlements next to King's Lynn and the Main Towns	25 homes
Key Rural Service Centres	25 homes
Rural Villages, Smaller Villages and Hamlets	Homes outside the boundary not normally supported

A Threshold Councillors Held to at Snettisham

On 27 July 2026 the planning committee considered up to 31 homes behind Common Road, Snettisham, a Key Rural Service Centre, on land the minutes describe as "directly adjacent" to the boundary "on two sides". The minutes record that it was refused "contrary to recommendation": the scheme was "a departure from the policy and is contrary to Policy LP02", and it would harm "the setting of the National Landscape".

Six homes over the limit was the first of two reasons for refusal, given with supply well above five years. Inside a boundary, national policy S4 leans towards approval, keeping refusal for harm that would substantially outweigh the benefits, and beyond the villages a rural exception site for local need remains open. Our paddocks and small sites page covers land at that scale.

The Great Ouse, the Wash and a Flood Test at Village Level

The inspectors described most of the west of the borough as "low lying fenland, which is subject to tidal and fluvial flood risks from the River Great Ouse". The plan says homes and businesses "rely on flood management infrastructure, including the Denver complex, King's Lynn tidal defences and Welches Dam Pumping Station".

The sequential test is applied village by village. At Tilney St Lawrence, three self-build plots north of 37 Church Road lay 350 metres beyond the boundary, in Flood Zones 2 and 3a and the tidal hazard mapping zone. The officers' report gave two reasons to refuse: the site did not adjoin the boundary and would erode a gap along Church Road, and, with other sites in the village for a similar number of homes at lower risk, the proposal "would therefore fail the sequential test". That held even though the council has "a shortage of self-build and custom sites". The planning committee refused it as recommended on 11 May 2026.

Where a site passes, the council's design guidance sets the homes by flood depth:

The council's flood risk design guidance.
Predicted flood depth	What new homes need
Up to 1 metre	Floor levels raised to the flood depth and flood doors or dam boards; where water could still get in, a refuge above the flood depth and no ground floor bedrooms
Over 1 metre and up to 2 metres	The same, or no habitable rooms on the ground floor where those measures cannot be achieved
Over 2 metres	No ground floor habitable accommodation; garages, stores and toilets only

Fifteen Protected Sites Along the Coast and in the Brecks

The inspectors counted all or part of 15 internationally designated sites in the borough: four Special Protection Areas, six Special Areas of Conservation and five Ramsar sites. They had project level habitats assessments, the Norfolk recreation mitigation strategy known as GIRAMS and nutrient neutrality written into the plan's policies: known costs we allow for from the first appraisal. Our flood risk guide explains the sequential and exception tests.

West Winch and North Runcton: 4,000 Homes Tied to One Road

The West Winch growth area, south of King's Lynn, is the plan's largest allocation. Policy E2.1 expects a minimum of 2,030 homes by 2040 and a further 1,970 after it. The inspectors recorded that the government's funding decision for the full access road is "reliant on the WWGA delivering 4,000 dwellings".

The first phase, up to 1,110 homes west of Constitution Hill in North Runcton parish, has had outline permission since 16 May 2025. The trajectory lists 500 more under application 18/02289/OM and some 2,400 in later phases, most of them after 2040, and counts only 200 homes from the area in its five years, 100 from each of the first two phases.

Norfolk County Council's timeline for the West Winch Housing Access Road lists Costain's contract to design and build the road under 2026, then, under 2027, full business case approval, "releasing Department for Transport funding needed for construction", and the start of construction, with the road "open for use" in 2028.

A New Plan to 2044 on the 30-Month Timetable

The council's timetable of June 2026 gives 15 June 2026 as the date of its notice of intention to start a plan to 2044 under the 30-month system, and sets out the stages from there:

The council's timetable of June 2026, with Gateways 2 and 3 in late 2027 and autumn 2028. Dates may move.
Stage	Council's timetable, June 2026
Scoping consultation	1 to 29 September 2026
Gateway 1	30 October 2026
Draft plan consultation	17 May to 30 June 2027
Proposed plan consultation	1 April to 16 May 2028
Submission and examination	15 November 2028 to 16 March 2029
Adoption	31 May 2029

The call for sites ran from 29 January to 1 May 2026, and the council reports over 750 submissions for housing, employment and renewable energy; it reopened from 1 to 29 September 2026 alongside the scoping consultation. Our guide to calls for sites and plan stages explains each step.

Delivery, the Buffer and the Next Statement

The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, gave 100%, after 93% in the previous edition. The next test swaps 2022/23, with 569 completions in the council's count, for 2025/26, with 708; we would not predict the result. Below 95% an action plan follows, below 85% a 20% buffer, and under 75% unmet need is treated as evidenced under policy S5. For supply, these figures count from 1 April 2026 and belong to the 2025/26 monitoring year; the next come with the council's 2026/27 monitoring.

A West Norfolk Council Proposed, Then Withdrawn

On 25 March 2026 the government chose three unitary councils for Norfolk, with a West Norfolk council joining the borough, Breckland and "a small part of South Norfolk". On 7 September 2026 it withdrew that decision for a review, and the council's page says every borough council seat goes to election in May 2027. The borough council still writes the new plan, so LP02 sites can go in now and larger fields be readied for the 2027 draft plan.

Questions About Land in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

My field adjoins the Downham Market boundary. Do I have to wait for the new plan?

Not if the scheme stays within 75 homes and meets policy LP02's other criteria. Larger schemes need an allocation.

Our land near Terrington St Clement is in Flood Zone 3. Is it worth anything for housing?

It can be, but the sequential test comes first. Where lower risk land exists in the village, a higher risk site is likely to fail, as at Tilney St Lawrence in May 2026.

The county has a contractor for the West Winch road. Does that help land next to the growth area?

The road serves the allocated growth area. Land beside West Winch village outside it is judged under LP02, with a 25-home limit, so larger fields there belong in the new plan.

I did not put my land into the 2026 call for sites. Is it too late?

The reopened call ran until 29 September 2026, but the timetable has public consultations on the draft plan in 2027 and the proposed plan in 2028, where a site can be argued for with evidence we prepare at our cost.

My land is near Hunstanton, just outside the National Landscape. Does its setting matter?

Yes. LP02 supports edge homes only where the setting is not harmed, and that harm was one reason for refusing up to 31 homes at Snettisham in July 2026.

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 King's Lynn and West Norfolk

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.