Selling Land in North Norfolk

North Norfolk had 102,979 residents at the 2021 census, 1.5% more than in 2011, according to the council's scoping consultation of June 2026.

• Eight towns in the plan. The inspector records Cromer, North Walsham and Fakenham as Large Growth Towns, and Holt, Hoveton, Sheringham, Stalham and Wells-next-the-Sea as Small Growth Towns. Growth villages such as Blakeney follow; beyond them is countryside, under policy SS2.
• A protected coast. About a quarter of the district lies in the Norfolk Coast National Landscape, which the Norfolk Coast Partnership describes as running from Old Hunstanton past Weybourne to Bacton in its central zone, with Sheringham, Cromer and Mundesley's built-up areas excluded.
• Cliffs on the move. The council describes some of the fastest eroding coastline in north west Europe, with soft cliffs retreating around 1.7 metres a year on average.
• Rivers under nutrient rules. Since Natural England's advice of 2022, new homes across large parts of the district must add nothing to nutrient pollution in the River Wensum or the Broads.
• A test that stops at the Broads. Delivery is measured without the district's share of the Broads National Park.

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 is the route for housing on sites close to and connected with a settlement, with infrastructure able to cope, once unmet need is evidenced. A delivery result under 75% is that evidence in itself, and the council says so: an evidenced unmet need "is deemed to exist for the purposes of applying NPPF Policy S5(1)(j)". A supply shortfall would only be evidence to weigh, not an automatic finding; here delivery carries the case. By location:

1. Inside a town or village. Under policy S4, plots, yards and backland win approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
2. Beside a growth town or village. A field adjoining Fakenham, North Walsham, Holt or a growth village, with workable access and drainage, can make an S5 case while the result stays below 75%.
3. Inside the National Landscape. S5 does not lift its protection. The inspector gave great weight to its landscape and scenic beauty, and at Blakeney looked for exceptional circumstances in the public interest.
4. Beyond the villages. Policy HOU3, Affordable Homes in the Countryside, is the district's rural exception route: the inspector noted that it "will still support conventional rural exception housing schemes".
5. In a nutrient catchment. A site draining to the Wensum or the Broads must still show nutrient neutrality under policy CC13.

Our paddocks and small sites page covers smaller parcels.

The National Landscape, designated in 1968, covers 453 square kilometres. The Norfolk Coast Partnership, acting for the county council and the three district and borough councils that share it, speaks of managing the landscape "sensitively, rather than protecting it from all change". Adopted policy ENV1 covers both it and the Broads, and the examination showed where the line falls:

• Wells-next-the-Sea. Site W07/1, beside Holkham Road, was deleted because it "would consolidate a form of linear sprawl along the undeveloped coast", with a landscape impact that "cannot be mitigated".
• Blakeney. Wholly inside the designation, yet both allocations stayed, because "particularly high house prices and second/holiday home ownership" made exceptional circumstances in the public interest.
• Sheringham. A site north of Woodland Rise was accepted as effectively within the built-up area.

How Many Homes Are Second Homes

The adopted plan, from council tax records of 2020, says about 8.1% of homes are registered as second homes, rising to 38% in Salthouse. The scoping consultation gives 8.3% for second homes and 12.6% once caravans, chalets and other holiday accommodation are added; on second homes alone the two are close.

Notice of a new plan for 2029 to 2045 was given on 30 June 2026. The scoping consultation puts need under the new method at 932 homes a year, 375 more than the adopted 557, or 13,980 over fifteen years. The council's timetable sets out the stages:

Six growth options went out for comment, including a new settlement, for which the document names the railway and A140 between Cromer and North Walsham, and the A1065 and A1067 around Fakenham. The call for sites took land for five homes or 0.25 hectares, and suggested sites "will be further assessed as part of the Local Plan process". Our guide to plan stages explains what follows.

The Result That Decides the S5 Case

The test is refreshed each year. The next drops 2022/23, a year for which MHCLG's 2025 letter recorded 348 homes delivered, and adds 2025/26; we would not predict it. Below 75% unmet need stays evidenced for S5. At 75% or more that evidence would go, and with supply above five years on every basis above, edge-of-settlement fields would lose today's route.

The council says it updates its supply statement at least once a year; on 29 September 2026 its document library showed none newer than September 2025, and no action plan for the latest result. The scoping document says Natural England gave notice in December 2025 of an environmental delivery plan on nutrients for the Broads, the Wensum included, that applies here. The government withdrew its reorganisation decisions for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Hampshire on 7 September 2026 and opened a review, adding that the elections of May 2027 would take place on the existing boundaries.

• Edge-of-settlement land: now, while the result stays below 75%.
• Larger holdings: evidence ready for the content and evidence consultation, which the timetable puts at 12 April to 24 May 2027.
• Plots in the towns and exception sites: at any time.