Nottinghamshire council area

Selling Land in Gedling

Gedling is short of five years of housing land, and its own draft plan names five pieces of grey belt on Nottingham's edge for new homes. With submission planned for the end of 2026, the months ahead are when the shortfall and the council's own reading of the Green Belt both count.

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Arnold, Carlton and a Borough Three-Quarters Green Belt

Gedling Borough Council, based in Arnold, covers Nottingham's north eastern suburbs of Arnold, Carlton, Netherfield, Mapperley and Gedling village, and a rural area stretching out to Burton Joyce, Lambley, Woodborough, Calverton, Ravenshead, Papplewick, Newstead and Bestwood Village. Its draft plan records that 79.2% of the borough's 117,300 residents at the 2021 Census lived in the suburbs of Arnold and Carlton.

Green Belt on most of the map. The council's latest monitoring report records that "73% of Gedling Borough is now Green Belt (8,794 hectares)", after its Local Planning Document released 215 hectares.
Plans from 2014 and later. The Aligned Core Strategy of September 2014 still sets the strategic housing figure, with the Local Planning Document as Part 2.
Building above target. The council delivered 1,777 homes against a requirement of 1,420 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 125%.
Its own plan, not the joint one. Gedling decided in February 2025 to leave the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, and its Gedling Local Development Plan was published for consultation in June 2026.
Three key settlements. Beyond the urban edge, the draft plan names Bestwood Village, Calverton and Ravenshead as the villages for growth.

The two facts that matter most sit side by side: a five-year supply the council itself puts below the line, and a draft plan that uses the grey belt concept to choose its sites.

Gedling 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
125%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.73 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the standard method, 638 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Gedling Borough Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,777
of 1,420 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
September 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Left the joint Greater Nottingham plan in 2025; own draft plan consulted on 22 June to 3 August 2026, submission due by the end of 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.

A Supply Gap of About 850 Homes

The council's Five Year Housing Land Supply Assessment, published in December 2025 and covering the five years from 1 April 2025, explains that the housing figure in the 2014 strategy is out of date, so the council must test its supply against the standard method instead. The calculation runs as follows:

Source: Gedling Borough Council, Five Year Housing Land Supply Assessment 2025 (December 2025).
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Standard method need	638 homes a year, 3,190 over five years
Buffer	5% (160 homes), making a target of 3,350
Allocated sites in the adopted plans	1,879
Sites under construction and with permission	106 under construction, 96 on small sites and 153 on larger sites, after lapse rates of 9% and 1%
Windfall allowance, last two years only	256
Communal homes such as care places	7
Total supply, as stated	2,498 homes
Result	3.73 years

The target of 3,350 less the supply of 2,498 in the table leaves 852 homes. The assessment's conclusion quotes a slightly different pair, 2,504 homes and an undersupply of 846, a small internal difference that does not move the result. Delivery has improved in recent years, and the Authority Monitoring Report 2024 to 2025 records net completions of 691 in 2022/23, 604 in 2023/24 and 463 in 2024/25, against 360 or fewer in each year from 2011/12 to 2021/22. The latest year, at 463, was well below the 638 now required, and the deliverable sites in the assessment add up to less than five years' worth.

How That Shortfall Meets the Grey Belt Test

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, which supports homes beyond a settlement's edge where unmet need is evidenced, is switched off inside the Green Belt. Beyond Gedling's built-up area, the land outside the Green Belt includes safeguarded land, and the draft plan proposes to build on all of it, saying this "fully exhausts all safeguarded land in the Borough". For most fields, the question is therefore grey belt, and national policy sets it out in three parts:

The land is previously developed, or plays no strong part in checking Nottingham's spread or in keeping towns apart.
Homes there would not fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining Green Belt, and the site is sustainably located.
There is an evidenced need for homes. For housing, that means a Housing Delivery Test score under the 75% mark, or deliverable land for fewer than five years with the buffer counted in.

Gedling's result of 125% rules out the first kind of evidence, but its own figure of 3.73 years supplies the second. So today the need part of the test is met, and the argument turns on the land itself. Major housing schemes on Green Belt land also have to satisfy the Golden Rules covering affordable housing, supporting infrastructure and green space open to the public. Our grey belt guide sets out how each purpose is judged.

Five Grey Belt Sites on the Edge of Nottingham

Gedling's draft plan is unusual in how openly it uses the grey belt idea. Its housing background paper says there is "insufficient capacity to deliver all the required homes" inside the main built-up area, identifies two sites within it, and adds: "A further five sites have been identified on grey belt land adjoining the main built up area." Those five are:

Lime Lane, a mixed use site that the draft plan pairs with a new park and ride.
East of Mapperley Plains.
Teal Close extension, next to the existing Teal Close development.
New Farm.
Willow Farm extension at Gedling village.

The paper's table gives the five about 2,590 homes between them. The site policies in Part B of the draft plan put higher figures on two of them, 1,075 homes at Lime Lane rather than 925 and 200 at Willow Farm extension rather than 140, which would take the five to about 2,800, so the final numbers are for the examination to settle. The remaining allocations include Mapperley Golf Course, which the paper places outside the Green Belt, the Top Wighay Farm extension near Hucknall on existing safeguarded land, and sites at the key settlements: Westhouse Farm extension at Bestwood Village, Mansfield Lane and Park Road extension at Calverton, and Kighill Lane, Nottingham Road and Silverland Farm at Ravenshead. The council's information note on the plan explains why Green Belt land is needed at all: brownfield sites have "an estimated capacity of only 714 homes", so "additional sites will therefore need to be found".

For owners of land that was not chosen, two points follow. The council has accepted in its own evidence that some land on the Nottingham edge is grey belt, which gives a firm starting point for a case on similar land nearby. But the sites it picked are the ones it believes are best, and a rival field must show it plays a similarly weak Green Belt role before its merits are weighed.

Why Gedling Went Its Own Way, and What Its Plan Asks For

In February 2025 the Greater Nottingham Planning Partnership reported on its news page that Gedling had decided to withdraw from the joint strategic plan to focus on its own. The council's emerging local plan page explains that the Gedling Local Development Plan will replace both the Aligned Core Strategy and the Local Planning Document. Its issues and options stage ran from 21 July to 1 September 2025, and the publication draft was consulted on from 22 June to 3 August 2026.

The plan runs to March 2043 and sets a requirement of 638 homes a year, the standard method figure, or 11,484 homes in all. It does not ask for the same number every year:

Source: Gedling Local Development Plan Housing Background Paper (May 2026).
Years	Homes a year	Why
2025 to 2031	538	Most homes in these years come from existing commitments while new sites gain permission and infrastructure
2031 to 2037	738	The new allocations are expected to be fully under way
2037 to 2043	638	Back to the standard method rate

The paper counts 6,235 homes from the fourteen new allocations on top of existing commitments, and records that "upon adoption of the GLDP Gedling Borough Council will have a 5.39 year land supply." The steps are what make that possible: the paper explains that the lower target in the early years gives the larger allocations time to get going before the higher target applies.

The Sites Already Under Way

The monitoring report tracks the strategic sites from the current plans. At Teal Close, 507 of 830 homes had been built by March 2025. At Gedling Colliery and Chase Farm, 634 of 1,050 were built. At Top Wighay Farm, allocated for 845 homes, reserved matters for 763 were approved in September 2024 and construction started in October 2025.

Sherwood Forest and Matching Land to Its Route

Gedling's draft plan treats Sherwood Forest as a prospective Special Protection Area. Its habitats assessment "followed a precautionary approach, as advised by Natural England", and it says measures such as green infrastructure and visitor management will still be needed to avoid harm. On a larger scheme, room for new green routes and everyday walks within the site can matter as much as the Green Belt question.

Your land	The route that usually fits
A plot or yard inside Arnold, Carlton or Netherfield	Policy S4, which supports building within settlements unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
A contained field on the Nottingham edge	A grey belt application while the supply stays under five years. The formal comment period on the draft plan closed on 3 August 2026.
Previously developed land in the Green Belt	A separate Green Belt route for land already built on, which does not depend on the supply position, and such land can also qualify as grey belt.
A paddock beside Calverton, Ravenshead or Bestwood Village	Usually the next plan, as these villages already take the allocations the draft proposes.

Smaller parcels are covered on our page about paddocks and small sites.

The Land We Look for in Gedling

Fields next to Arnold, Mapperley, Carlton or Gedling village that housing or roads already enclose.
Land close to the five grey belt allocations that shares their character.
Yards, depots and former colliery or commercial land in the Green Belt.
Plots and backland inside the urban area.
Land near Calverton, Ravenshead or Bestwood Village that could suit a later plan.

If your land fits, we fix the price at the outset, above its current value, and fund every survey, report and application, including any appeal. You go on using the land until completion, and a refusal leaves it in your hands with no bill to settle. We put money towards your own solicitor and land agent too, so taking proper advice comes at no cost to you.

Gedling From Submission to a Spring 2028 Plan

Submission and Hearings

The council's Local Development Scheme of May 2026 sets out the path from here:

From the Gedling Borough Local Development Scheme 2026 to 2029. Dates are the council's and may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Submission for examination	December 2026
Examination hearings	January 2027
Inspector's report	December 2027
Adoption	Spring 2028

Once submitted, the plan will carry more weight in decisions, and the council can be expected to lean on it against large sites it has not chosen. Smaller grey belt and previously developed sites raise fewer of the questions the examination exists to settle.

A Different Yardstick After Adoption

If the plan is adopted with its stepped requirement, the council expects to show 5.39 years of supply. The need part of the grey belt test would then no longer be met through supply, so the stretch before adoption is when a grey belt application stands on its firmest ground.

The Next Supply Assessment and Delivery Test

The last assessment appeared in December 2025, and the next, from an April 2026 base, would update the shortfall. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026. At 125%, Gedling faces none of the test's consequences, so the supply figure, not the delivery result, is the one to watch.

Reorganisation on Hold

A national review of reorganisation, announced by the government on 7 September 2026, withdrew four decisions, paused plans in other areas and kept the May 2027 elections on the current council map. Ashfield District Council's reorganisation page confirms the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire programme is among those paused, so Gedling Borough Council remains the authority taking its plan through examination. More on the county picture is on our Nottinghamshire page.

What This Means for Timing

Contained edge-of-Nottingham land is worth reviewing now, while the shortfall stands and before adoption.
Land near the draft allocations that was not put forward before the comment period closed on 3 August 2026 is usually better served by an application while the shortfall lasts than by the examination.
Village land is more likely to suit the plan after this one, but the survey work we pay for keeps its value.

Questions About Land in Gedling

The council calls five sites near Arnold and Carlton grey belt. Does that make my neighbouring field grey belt too?

Not automatically. It shows the council accepts grey belt exists on the Nottingham edge, but each parcel is judged on its own role in checking sprawl and keeping places apart. Land with a similar setting to an allocated site is a good starting point.

Gedling builds more than its target. Why is it short of land?

The delivery test compares completions with a lower past requirement, while the supply test now uses the standard method of 638 homes a year. The council's pipeline of deliverable sites falls short of that higher figure over five years.

Should I wait for the plan to be adopted in 2028?

Not necessarily. On the council's own figures, adoption would bring the supply above five years, which would weaken the need part of a grey belt case. Land that could go forward on its own merits is often better reviewed before then.

My land is near Ravenshead. Does Sherwood Forest rule it out?

No, but it adds a step. The council follows Natural England's precautionary approach to the prospective Special Protection Area, so a larger scheme may need green infrastructure and visitor measures, and we design those in from the start.

I commented on the publication draft. Is there anything more to do?

Comments go with the plan to the inspector at submission. Supporting evidence on access, drainage and Green Belt role helps if the inspector looks at alternative sites, and we pay for that work on land we take on.

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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.