Nottinghamshire council area

Selling Land in Bassetlaw

Bassetlaw adopted a new local plan in May 2024, has built more homes than that plan asks for in every year since 2020, and has already started work on the plan that will replace it. For land around Worksop, Retford, Harworth and the villages, the new plan, and the call for sites that opened with it in September 2026, is the door that matters most.

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Worksop, Retford and a District That Outbuilds Its Plan

Bassetlaw District Council is based in Worksop, the largest town. Retford has the district's one station on the East Coast Main Line, with direct trains to London, and Harworth and Bircotes lie in the north. Around them are Tuxford, Blyth, Carlton in Lindrick, Langold, Misterton and dozens of smaller villages, with the Trent running along the eastern side.

A plan from 2024. The Bassetlaw Local Plan 2020 to 2038 was adopted by the council on 29 May 2024 and replaced the 2011 Core Strategy. It asks for at least 9,720 homes, or 540 a year.
Delivery far above target. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 records 2,899 homes built against 812 needed over April 2022 to March 2025, a result of 357%.
A supply above five years. The council's latest statement shows 5.31 years from 1 April 2025, measured against the plan's own figure.
A replacement already under way. Scoping for a Bassetlaw Local Plan 2026 to 2045 opened on 3 September 2026, alongside a fresh call for sites.
Energy country along the Trent. The former power station sites at West Burton, Cottam and High Marnham are the focus of new energy investment, including the government's STEP fusion prototype.

So this is not a district where weak numbers open doors. The questions for a landowner are where the current plan draws its lines, how the next plan will be shaped, and how soon the yardstick for housing need changes.

Bassetlaw 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
357%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
5.31 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the adopted Local Plan requirement of 540 homes a year, with no shortfall and a 5% buffer. Stated by Bassetlaw District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
2,899
of 812 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
May 2024
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Updated
New Local Plan started: scoping consultation and call for sites 3 September to 15 October 2026
Checked source

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.

Five Years of Supply, Measured Against 540 a Year

The council's five-year housing land supply statement, published in March 2026, covers 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030 and finds 5.31 years. It uses the 540 homes a year in the adopted plan, not the government's standard method, because the plan was adopted within the last five years. The calculation runs as follows:

Source: Bassetlaw District Council, 5 Year Housing Land Supply 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030 (March 2026).
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement	540 homes, from the adopted plan
Five-year requirement	2,700 homes
Past shortfall	None
Buffer	5%, or 135 homes
Requirement with buffer	2,835 homes
Sites with full or small-site permission (Category A)	2,011 homes
Outline permissions and allocations with evidence of delivery (Category B)	525 homes
Allowance for small windfall sites	539 homes
Allowance for demolitions	minus 63 homes
Deliverable supply	3,012 homes, or 106% of the requirement
Result	5.31 years

The statement records an oversupply of 1,740 homes between April 2020 and March 2025. It notes that surplus delivery can offset an earlier shortfall, but with no shortfall to offset, the surplus is not used to shrink the requirement. The margin above five years is 177 homes.

Category B includes land at Harworth Colliery and south of Tickhill Road, both with outline permission. The two largest allocations in the plan, Peaks Hill Farm at Worksop and Ordsall South at Retford, still had outline applications awaiting a decision when the statement was prepared, and it expected both at committee in April 2026. On 1 April the Planning Committee granted Ordsall South outline permission for homes, a local centre, a school and a community park, subject to conditions and a Section 106 agreement. Peaks Hill Farm was not on that agenda.

What a Supply Above Five Years Means for a Field

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 supports housing on land well related to a town or village where unmet need is evidenced, as long as local roads, schools and drainage have room. Under three quarters on the delivery test, the need is presumed; fewer than five years of land is evidence for the decision-maker to weigh, with no automatic outcome. Bassetlaw shows neither today, so an application on an unallocated field outside a development boundary would, for now, meet the plan's countryside restraint without that support. That is why the plan route matters more here than in much of the county, and why the change due in 2029, covered below, matters too.

Six Years Above the Plan's Target

The council's Authority Monitoring Report 2025 to 2026 sets out net completions for every year of the plan period so far:

Source: Bassetlaw Authority Monitoring Report 2025 to 2026.
Year	Homes completed (net)	Against 540 a year
2020/21	775	235 above
2021/22	766	226 above
2022/23	1,046	506 above
2023/24	981	441 above
2024/25	872	332 above
2025/26	678	138 above

Two readings sit side by side in that table. Bassetlaw has met its target every year, and 191 of the 678 homes completed in 2025/26 were affordable. The same figures also show completions easing from their 2022/23 peak. In the latest year the three main towns delivered 386 homes between them, and more than half of those came from Harworth and Bircotes, where the Simpson Park scheme is building out. Worksop contributed 76 and Retford 94.

That pattern matters for what comes next. The large permissions that carried delivery at Gateford Park, Trinity Farm and Harworth will not last for ever, and of the plan's two biggest allocations only Ordsall South has outline consent so far. We make no forecast, but a district whose completions slow while its target rises is a district whose supply position deserves watching.

Why the Target Rises to 643 in 2029

The adopted figure of 540 a year was argued over at examination. The council submitted a plan for 10,476 homes, or 582 a year, well above the standard method figure of 288 a year at the time, because it wanted housing to keep pace with expected job growth. The inspectors' report of 21 February 2024 accepted the case for going above the standard method, but found 540 a year soundly based once the jobs forecast was revised. It also accepted the council's decision in 2022 to drop the garden community it had considered, after part of the site was no longer available.

Since the government changed the standard method in December 2024, the position has turned round. The council's scoping report for the new plan states that Bassetlaw's minimum local housing need is now 643 homes a year, a 19% rise on the adopted figure. It adds that the council can keep planning for 540 until the current plan is five years old in 2029, and must then plan for the standard method figure.

Working the Numbers

Because the plan is recent, the national rule applied to decisions since 1 July 2026 is worth checking too. For decision-taking, that rule lifts the buffer to 20% if a plan under five years old set its housing figure through an examination under a pre-December 2024 framework, and that figure is no more than 80% of the government's current method. Bassetlaw's plan was examined against the September 2023 framework, but 540 is about 84% of 643, so the rule does not apply today. It would only bite if the method's figure for the district rose above 675 a year.

The March 2026 statement is a useful test. The same 3,012 deliverable homes would fall short of the 3,376 needed over five years at 643 a year with a 5% buffer. That is an illustration from the council's own figures, not a forecast: by 2029 the sites, completions and base date will all be different. It shows why the date the plan turns five, and the date its replacement is adopted, matter for land that sits outside today's boundaries.

Development Boundaries and the Villages

The plan sets out where homes should go by settlement. Policy ST1 plans for around 2,322 homes on the edges of Worksop, a further 238 in central Worksop through a separate development plan document, about 2,331 at Retford and about 2,203 at Harworth and Bircotes. Beyond the towns it names five Large Rural Settlements (Blyth, Carlton in Lindrick with Costhorpe, Langold with Hodsock, Misterton and Tuxford), with Small Rural Settlements below them.

Each village has a development boundary. The plan is clear that outside these boundaries countryside policies of restraint apply, so the line on the policies map is the first thing we check.

Inside a boundary. Plots, larger gardens and gaps inside Worksop, Retford, Harworth or a village fall under policy S4 of the national framework, which says to grant permission unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
Village growth figures. Policy ST2 sets a minimum growth of 20% for each Large Rural Settlement and 5% for each Small Rural Settlement. The council's rural monitoring table tracks completions, permissions and allocations village by village, and shows some villages already past their minimum and others with homes still to find.
Neighbourhood plans. The monitoring report counts 27 made neighbourhood plans in the district, the latest being Babworth in November 2025 and East Drayton in February 2026. The rural monitoring table counts homes allocated in neighbourhood plans alongside the Local Plan, so we read the relevant plan before giving a view.
Previously developed land. Former colliery, yard and depot land has a long record of reuse here, from Firbeck Colliery at Carlton in Lindrick to Harworth Colliery. Our page on brownfield sites and yards explains how we look at it.

Fusion, Solar and the Trent Valley

The east of the district is changing fastest, though mostly not through housing. The council's news release of 12 June 2025 welcomed £2.5 billion of government funding for STEP, the prototype fusion energy plant planned on the former West Burton coal-fired power station near Retford and Gainsborough, which the council expects to support a yearly average of more than 500 construction jobs and 1,460 operational jobs over 45 years.

The scoping report names two regional growth areas the new plan should respond to: the Trent Valley Supercluster, covering West Burton, the former Cottam power station and the former High Marnham power station, and Explore Park, part of the East Midlands Investment Zone. The council's planning pages list nine nationally significant infrastructure projects affecting the district, most of them large solar schemes or grid links, among them Steeple Renewables, One Earth Solar Farm and the North Humber to High Marnham grid line.

For housing land, the effect is indirect but real. Jobs growth is what persuaded the inspectors to set a figure above the old standard method, and the new plan starts from the premise of making the most of these growth areas. Cottam itself is not expected to deliver homes in this plan period, as the inspectors noted its flood risk and contamination constraints, and where any homes linked to the new jobs should go is a question for the new plan. The Trent's flood plain still comes first, as our flood risk guide explains.

The Land We Look for in Bassetlaw

Land adjoining the development boundaries of Worksop, Retford or Harworth and Bircotes.
Fields on the edge of Tuxford, Misterton, Blyth, Carlton in Lindrick or Langold, the Large Rural Settlements.
Plots, yards and larger gardens inside a settlement boundary.
Former colliery, industrial or depot land, and other previously developed sites.
Land within walking distance of Retford station, above the flood plain.
Holdings of 20 acres or more that could suit an allocation in the 2026 to 2045 plan.

In a district with a supply above five years, most edge-of-settlement land will come forward through the new plan, and the work that decides it is done now. We prepare the evidence the council asks for (access, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage) and meet the full cost ourselves. The option price is agreed before any of that work begins and sits above what the land is worth now. Farming or grazing carries on as normal, and if permission is never granted the land stays yours and you owe nothing. Our farmland page explains what we look for in larger holdings.

From a Call for Sites in October 2026 to the Plan's Fifth Birthday

A Call for Sites Alongside Scoping

The call for sites runs alongside the scoping consultation, which the timetable sets from 3 September to 15 October 2026. The council wants housing sites of five or more homes, new settlements of 1,000 or more, self-build plots and land for nature, employment and community uses, and it says a submission confers no consent. It follows a first call held from June to September 2025. Land put forward in neither call misses the easiest way in, but the plan content consultation in 2027 is the next point at which the council tests where growth should go.

The Council's Timetable

The Local Plan Timetable, prepared under the 2023 Act and the 2026 local plan regulations, sets out these stages:

From the Bassetlaw Local Plan Timetable (September 2026). The council's dates, which it says it will review monthly.
Stage	Council's timetable
Scoping consultation and call for sites	3 September to 15 October 2026
Gateway 1, the formal 30-month plan period starts	30 October 2026
Consultation on the proposed plan content and evidence	May to July 2027
Gateway 2 assessment by the Planning Inspectorate	August to September 2027
Draft plan consultation	October to December 2027
Submission for examination	March 2028
Examination begins	May 2028
Full Council decision on adoption	April 2029

The adoption decision is timed for April 2029, one month before the current plan turns five in May 2029. If the timetable holds, the new plan and its higher housing figure would arrive together. If it slips, the supply would be measured against 643 a year before the new allocations are in place, and the supply statement at that point would show how much that matters.

The Next Delivery Test and Supply Statement

At 357% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, Bassetlaw sits far above the 95% line where any consequence of the yearly test begins. The council publishes a supply statement each year from a 1 April base date, and the next one can draw on the 678 homes completed in 2025/26. We will read it as soon as it appears, since a margin of 177 homes can move with a few site delays.

Reorganisation Paused

In her September 2026 column the council's leader, Cllr Julie Leigh, wrote that reorganisation in the region, "along with 13 other areas, would be paused while a rapid review takes place". Bassetlaw District Council remains the planning authority and is preparing the new plan.

What This Means for Timing

For land on the edge of a town or larger village, the call for sites is the way in, and the months that follow are when the evidence counts, ahead of the May 2027 consultation on plan content. Sites inside boundaries, and previously developed land, can be looked at now. Each stage of plan-making, and what a landowner can do at it, is covered in our call for sites and local plans guide.

Questions About Land in Bassetlaw

How do I get my land into the new Bassetlaw plan?

Through the call for sites, which runs with the scoping consultation to 15 October 2026 and takes submissions online, by email or by post. What counts after that is the evidence behind the site, which is the work we pay for.

I put my land forward in the 2025 call. Do I need to do it again?

Check with the council whether the earlier submission carries over to the new plan. If there is any doubt, resubmitting costs little and keeps the land in view for the 2026 to 2045 plan.

Does the STEP fusion plant make land near West Burton more valuable for housing?

Not automatically. The plant is an energy project, and the new plan will decide where the homes and jobs linked to it go. Land near the Trent villages also has flood plain and heritage questions, which we check before anything else.

My village has already met its growth figure. Is there any point?

The ST2 figures are minimums, not caps, but a village well past its figure may already have taken much of the growth the plan intended for it. The new plan will set fresh figures, and a well placed site with good access still deserves a look.

Why would the council's supply position change in 2029 if nothing else does?

Because the yardstick changes. Once the plan is five years old, the supply is measured against the government's standard method, which the council puts at 643 homes a year, rather than 540. More about the county is on our Nottinghamshire page.

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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.