Norfolk council area

Selling Land in Norwich

Checked on 29 September 2026

Norwich City Council plans with Broadland and South Norfolk under one Greater Norwich Local Plan, which says the city's new homes will rely on land that has been built on before. The three councils' joint assessment finds 4.85 years of land, a gap they put down largely to nutrient neutrality, and it counts none of the 3,362 homes planned at East Norwich within its five years.

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In short

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

Norwich 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.

Norwich 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 Norwich 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 Norwich

Yards, depots, workshops and former commercial buildings, including around Hall Road, Mile Cross and the river corridors.
Backland, large gardens and garage courts behind the city's residential streets.
Land beside the East Norwich and Anglia Square allocations that could be planned alongside them.
Sites at and just beyond the city boundary, where the built-up area runs on into Broadland and South Norfolk and the next joint plan must find land for much higher need.

On city sites the evidence we pay for starts with flood risk, drainage, nutrients and heritage. The option price is agreed on day one, above the site's current-use value, and you keep using the site until completion. If permission is not secured, it stays yours and nothing is owed. The sequence is on our how it works page.

The planning detail in full

A City Planned Jointly and Rebuilt on Its Own Brownfield Land

Norwich City Council decides applications inside the city boundary but plans with Broadland and South Norfolk, Norfolk County Council and the Broads Authority through the Greater Norwich Development Partnership, and the government scores the three councils' housing delivery and land supply as one area.

One plan for three councils. The Greater Norwich Local Plan, adopted by the city in March 2024, sets the strategy and the big sites; the city's Development Management Policies Local Plan of 2014 still supplies the detailed tests on applications.
Brownfield by necessity. The plan says the city's new homes will be "reliant on the use of previously developed land and premises, increasing densities and housing-led regeneration and renewal". Its new and changed allocations in the city provide for 4,178 homes, East Norwich and Anglia Square included.
A joint delivery score. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counted 6,565 homes against 5,902 required across the whole Greater Norwich area, 111%. No separate result is published for the city.
No Green Belt. The joint strategy found no exceptional circumstances to draw one, so grey belt rules never arise here.
The Broads inside the boundary. About 271 of the homes planned on the Utilities Site at East Norwich fall in the area of the Broads Local Plan, where the Broads Authority, not the city, is the planning authority.

In Norwich the question is rarely a field but yards, workshops, backland and old commercial buildings, which our Norfolk page sets against the county's more rural councils.

A Joint Shortfall of 299 Homes at April 2025

Supply is counted once for the three councils. The Greater Norwich assessment for the five years from 1 April 2025 reaches 4.85 years in these steps:

Source: Greater Norwich Housing Land Supply Assessment, 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030, rows a to j.
Step in the joint calculation	Greater Norwich figure
Plan requirement, 2018 to 2038	40,541 homes
Built in 2018/19 to 2024/25	15,316 homes
Left to build over the 13 years to 2038	25,225 homes, or 1,940 a year
Five years at 1,940	9,702 homes
With a 5% buffer	2,037 a year, 10,187 over five years
Homes forecast, 2025/26 to 2029/30	9,888: Broadland 3,931, Norwich 1,510, South Norfolk 4,447
Gap	299 homes
Result	4.85 years, for the three councils together

Past building has helped. The requirement averages about 2,027 homes a year, so seven years come to 14,189, and the assessment counts 15,316 built, which is why the remaining requirement falls to 1,940 a year. The councils' monitoring report for 2024/25 counts fewer over the same seven years, 14,803, almost all of the difference falling in 2018/19 to 2020/21, and neither document reconciles the two. Either count is ahead of the plan's average, but on the lower one the remaining requirement would be nearer 1,980 a year on our arithmetic, a slightly wider gap.

The same report gives the city's own completions, which the government's test does not: 927 in 2018/19, 166 in 2020/21 and 180 in 2024/25. It puts the latest fall partly down to no student accommodation being finished that year, and says delivery in Norwich "has also been particularly affected by Nutrient Neutrality".

The problem is the pipeline. The plan forecast 12,592 homes for the five years from April 2023; the assessment counts 9,888 for the five from April 2025, a fall of 2,704, or 21%, because "existing permissions and sites outside the Nutrient Neutrality area have continued to be developed, but likely development on some new allocations and permissions has been delayed." The city supplies about 15% of the joint count.

The 20% Buffer, and What It Does to the Count

The assessment warned that its 5% buffer "will rise to 20% in 2026", and the councils' April 2026 report on the new plan explains why. For decisions only, and since 1 July 2026, national policy has added a 20% buffer where a plan's requirement was adopted within the past five years, went through examination under a framework that predates December 2024, and sits at 80% or less of what the standard method gives. The report treats the Greater Norwich plan, adopted in March 2024, as one "examined against an earlier version of the NPPF", and puts its requirement at 78% of the roughly 2,590 homes a year the current standard method gives, so the report expects a 20% buffer, "effectively requiring a six-year land supply". Applied to the assessment's own 1,940 homes a year and 9,888 homes, that buffer gives about 4.2 years on our arithmetic; the councils have published no figure on that basis.

In the city this matters less than it seems. Most land in the city is already surrounded by development, and for such land the August 2026 framework's policy S4 favours approval, allowing refusal only if the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. Policy S5, for land beyond a settlement that is well related to it and served by infrastructure, turns on evidenced unmet need, and a supply below five years is evidence to weigh, not an automatic finding.

Where the City's 1,510 Homes Come From

The assessment's site-by-site appendix shows how little of that count rests on the city's largest sites:

East Norwich. All 3,362 homes planned there under the Greater Norwich plan carry the note "Partial permission. Assume delivery outside 5 years."
Anglia Square. Bought by the council in late 2024, with demolition begun and the permission implemented that year; the appendix expects "some units within Phases 1 and 2" in the five years.
Three Score, Bowthorpe. An urban extension of about 755 homes on 25.29 hectares, its third phase finished in 2024/25.
Student rooms. Purpose-built student bedrooms count at one home for every 2.85, the average in the city's student-only households.

The rest comes from other permitted and allocated sites. The plan allocates eighteen in the centre alone, from about 220 homes at Whitefriars and 270 beside the football ground down to 10 or 20, several with student housing as the alternative. A city leaning on many modest brownfield sites gives a well prepared smaller one a real part.

East Norwich, From a Refused Scheme to Homes England Ownership

Policy STR.01, the East Norwich Strategic Regeneration Area, covers 48.57 hectares by the Wensum and the Yare:

Greater Norwich Local Plan Sites Plan, policy STR.01.
Site	Area	Homes in the allocation
Deal Ground and Trowse Pumping Station, with the former May Gurney site at Trowse in South Norfolk	About 21.35 hectares	In the region of 1,257, of which about 158 at May Gurney
Carrow Works, including Carrow House	About 19.91 hectares	In the region of 1,692
Utilities Site, north of the Wensum	About 6.92 hectares	In the region of 684, with about 271 planned under the Broads Local Plan

The policy asks for all-modes bridges over the Yare to the Deal Ground and over the Wensum to the Utilities Site, riverside walks and development guided by the area's supplementary planning document. The land spans flood zones 1, 2 and 3. The three parts add up to about 3,633 homes; the assessment's 3,362 leaves out the 271 under the Broads Local Plan, and the city council rounds the area to over 3,500.

What the Carrow Works Refusal Shows

A hybrid application at Carrow Works, for up to 143 homes in full and up to 1,716 in outline, was refused on 22 March 2024 for 23 reasons. They included the "total lack of affordable housing", too little information on nitrate and phosphate effects on the Broads Special Area of Conservation and on recreational pressure, no site for a two form entry primary school or a health facility, and flood risk. The list reads as a guide to what the city expects on any large brownfield site.

The council announced on 24 March 2026 that Homes England had bought the 17-hectare Carrow Works, for a scheme with affordable homes. Carrow Works, and the Deal Ground with May Gurney, were put forward again in the 2026 call for sites, and the assessment records the Deal Ground's outline permission, 12/00875/O, as a partial permission for the area.

Anglia Square and the Northern City Centre

Anglia Square shows how long city sites can take. The Secretary of State refused a scheme of over 1,200 homes in November 2020, and the plan allocated its 4.79 hectares in the northern city centre for "in the region of" 800 homes. The permission, 22/00434/F, is for 1,100 homes, and the supply appendix records it as implemented, with Homes England funding committed. The allocation's figure was only a guide.

Checks for a Brownfield Site in the City

Inside the Broads boundary? Then the Broads Authority decides, under its own plan.
In flood zone 2 or 3, as riverside land at East Norwich partly is? Then the sequential test applies.
Adding overnight stays in the Wensum or Broads catchments? Then nutrient evidence comes before permission.
Affordable homes included? Their absence was the second of the 23 reasons at Carrow Works.

Our brownfield and yards page explains how we look at sites like these.

Nutrients: From Delayed Permissions to a Draft £2,675 Levy

The plan's policy 3 requires homes and other overnight stays in the catchments of the River Wensum Special Area of Conservation, the Broads Special Area of Conservation and the Broadland Ramsar site to show they will not harm them.

In September 2026 Natural England published for consultation a draft Environmental Delivery Plan for these three sites, naming Norwich City Council among the authorities it covers. Its main terms:

A fixed charge. A Nature Restoration Levy of £2,675 per house or flat, plus indexation.
A choice. Developers "can choose to use" it "on a voluntary basis"; their own mitigation remains possible.
A cap. At most 15,780 homes over ten years, apportioned from local housing need, with new commitments closing at the end of the sixth year.
Work in the landscape. Fen creation, changes of land use, habitat and deer management and river restoration, maintained where needed for at least 100 years.

The draft leaves its dates blank while it is in draft. A known charge per home is easier to price than catchment credits, and we allow for either from our first appraisal.

The Next Count, a 2027 Site Consultation and a Plan Turning Five in 2029

The assessment said work on a new count would start in April 2026, forecasting the five years to 31 March 2031, when the councils would need to consider the 20% buffer. In September 2026 the April 2025 assessment was still the latest published. The next will show whether delayed allocations have moved.

A Housing Delivery Test Shared Three Ways

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. Because the city is scored with Broadland and South Norfolk, a slow year inside Norwich is diluted by the larger districts. Were the joint result to drop under 95%, the councils would need an action plan; under 85%, the test itself would add a 20% buffer; under 75%, policy S5 would take unmet need as evidenced. At 111%, none of that applies.

Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045

The April 2026 report set out the timetable for a new plan under the reformed system: Gateway 1 by 30 October 2026, starting a statutory 30-month window, public consultations in 2027 and again in 2028, then an examination spanning late 2028 or early 2029, with adoption in about April 2029. It recorded a long-standing ambition for a new settlement or settlements. The councils' call for sites report lists 479 sites across the area, 18 in the city, to be assessed for a consultation in June or July 2027.

The adopted plan, from March 2024, turns five in March 2029, after which supply would be measured against the standard method unless the new plan is in place, and the report's timetable puts adoption after that. At today's figure of about 2,590 homes a year, the same 9,888 homes would cover under four years even with a 5% buffer, on our arithmetic, so any slip in the timetable matters.

Reorganisation on Hold

On 7 September 2026 the government withdrew its Norfolk reorganisation decision pending a review, and said the elections due in May 2027 would be held on the current boundaries. Norwich City Council therefore carries on deciding applications. City brownfield sites can be looked at now under policy S4; larger edge land is best readied before the 2027 site consultation, as our guide to calls for sites explains.

Questions About Land in Norwich

Does Norwich build enough homes on its own?

The government does not measure the city alone. Its Housing Delivery Test result, 111%, and its supply figure cover Norwich, Broadland and South Norfolk together. The councils' own monitoring shows the city building 180 homes in 2024/25, and in the joint count it is forecast to supply 1,510 of the 9,888 homes expected over five years.

My workshop is inside the ring road. Does the land supply shortfall help it?

It rarely needs to. For land the city already surrounds, policy S4 sets a high bar for refusal, the harm having to substantially outweigh the benefits, so flood risk, heritage and nutrients decide most such sites.

We own a building next to the Carrow Works land Homes England bought. Does that change anything?

Inside the East Norwich allocation, a scheme must fit the plan for the whole area and its bridges and riverside routes. Next to it, a site is judged on its own merits.

Will the draft nutrient levy let a city scheme go ahead sooner?

It could, once final. The draft sets £2,675 per home and makes it optional. Until Natural England confirms the final plan, applications still need their own nutrient solution.

My site was one of the 18 put forward in Norwich in 2026. What happens next?

The councils are assessing all 479 submissions and plan to consult on the results in June or July 2027. A submission does not mean allocation, so evidence on access, flood risk and nutrients prepared before then helps.

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 Norwich

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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.