Selling Land in Cherwell

• Fields of 2 acres or more against the edge of Banbury, Bicester or a Category A village.
• Paddocks and small parcels behind existing homes in the larger villages.
• Yards and previously developed sites in the Green Belt around Kidlington, Begbroke and Yarnton.
• Green Belt fields that may do little for its purposes, especially close to Oxford Parkway.
• Larger holdings that could feed the review that follows the 2042 plan.

Surveys, technical reports and the application itself are commissioned and paid for by us, at our risk, under an option whose price is agreed on day one and pitched above the land's present value. Farming, grazing or any other use carries on until completion. Should planning fail, the land remains yours with nothing to repay. Our how it works page walks through the order of events.

• An outright sale. You sell the land as it stands today, privately or at auction. The price is what a buyer will pay for it without planning permission, and the buyer takes on everything that follows.
• A conditional contract. You agree a sale now, but it only completes if planning permission is granted. Until then you keep the land, and the agreement sets out who applies for permission and who pays.
• An option agreement, the route we use. We agree your price at the start, in writing, set above what your land is worth today. We then pay for and run all of the planning work, at our own cost and risk. If permission is granted, we complete the purchase and you receive the agreed price on completion. If it is not, you keep your land and owe nothing.

For land that needs planning permission before it is worth more, an option means you know your price before any work starts and never spend a penny on planning. The ways to sell land for development, compared sets out each route in full.

The delivery test looks back; the five-year supply test looks forward, and in Cherwell it now carries two sets of homes at once: the district's own need under the government's standard method, and the 4,400 homes the Partial Review promised Oxford. The council once reported these separately, but its Annual Monitoring Report 2025, published in December 2025, explains that appeal decisions in 2024 and a High Court judgment now require a combined figure, and it sets out all three:

The combined shortfall is about 3,770 homes. The gap comes mostly from the Oxford sites: the councils' July 2026 memorandum on Oxford's unmet need records that none of those homes had been built by 31 March 2025, although development briefs were prepared, most sites have outline permission and construction has begun on site PR7a. Completions also slowed, to 717 in 2024/25, only 78 of them in Bicester.

An inspector has already found the previous year's calculation generous. At the Fringford Road appeal at Caversfield, allowed on 16 December 2025, the council claimed 2.3 years at 1 April 2024; the inspector called that optimistic and judged the appellant's 1.69 years "not unreasonable".

For an owner weighing a sale, the point is that the council's own figure has not been the low end of the argument: at Caversfield the inspector found the real position weaker still.

What a Supply Under Five Years Does, and Does Not, Do

Beyond the Green Belt, policy S5 of the August 2026 framework treats a supply short of five years as evidence that homes are needed on the edges of settlements. That is not a permission in itself: the land still has to be well related to a town or village and capable of being served by roads, schools and drainage. Inside the Green Belt S5 does not apply at all, but grey belt has its own need test, and a supply below five years is one of the usual ways of showing that need. That is why land around Kidlington, Begbroke and Yarnton deserves a closer look now.

The Partial Review allocated land for 4,400 homes on six sites north of Oxford, and, as Planning Resource reported while it was being examined, those sites were drawn from the Green Belt. The new plan carries the same 4,400 forward unchanged. Its Kidlington objectives are to deliver those committed homes, its rural strategy is to "maintain the designated Green Belt", and policy COM 12 sets out the approach.

Land in the south of the district therefore needs one of the narrower routes:

1. Inside Kidlington, Begbroke or Yarnton. These villages are inset, so plots within them fall outside the Green Belt and are judged under policy S4, which leans towards approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.
2. Previously developed land. Yards, depots and plots with lawful commercial buildings in the Green Belt are treated differently from open fields. Farm buildings do not count.
3. Grey belt. A field that does little to check sprawl, keep towns apart or protect the setting of historic Oxford may qualify, and here the supply shortfall helps it meet the need test. The Golden Rules on affordable housing, infrastructure and green space follow.
4. Near Oxford Parkway. National policy favours denser homes within a reasonable walk of a well served station.

Our grey belt guide explains how the Green Belt purposes are weighed parcel by parcel.

The council submitted the plan on 31 July 2025 and the first week of hearings ran in Banbury from 17 to 20 February 2026. The inspectors issued an interim note on 24 March 2026 and a further note in May. In July both original inspectors stepped down and Inspector D Spencer was appointed, joined by Inspector L Hughes in August, according to the council's examination updates page. On 25 August the council reported that the examination can proceed, with further hearing dates still to be announced. The councils' July 2026 memorandum expects adoption in early 2027, depending on the examination.

A New Yardstick on Adoption, and a Council Map on Hold

The next supply position should come with the monitoring report for 2025/26, and progress or delay on the Oxford sites will move it either way. At 134%, the delivery test's penalties are nowhere near applying.

Adoption would bring a new yardstick. Under a change in force since 1 July 2026, decisions on applications carry a 20% buffer if the adopted requirement is under five years old, was examined under a framework predating December 2024 and stands at 80% or less of the standard method figure. The plan is examined against the December 2023 framework, as the inspector confirmed in August, but at 81.5% of 1,118 its 911 sits just above the line, so on the council's own numbers the higher buffer would not follow. We do not predict how that will land, but land outside the Green Belt is best prepared while the shortfall stands.

Ministers decided on 16 July 2026 that three unitaries would replace today's councils across Oxfordshire and West Berkshire from 1 April 2028. As West Berkshire Council reported the decision, a Northern Oxfordshire Council would cover most of Cherwell and West Oxfordshire, and a Greater Oxford Council the city and its immediate surroundings. On 7 September the government paused its reorganisation decisions for review, so the date is no longer fixed. Elections in May 2027 go ahead on existing boundaries, and Cherwell District Council remains the planning authority.

Town and Village Edges Now, Kidlington Green Belt Tested First

• Land against a town or Category A village can be looked at now, while the shortfall gives an application weight.
• Green Belt land near Kidlington needs its grey belt case tested first.
• Larger holdings are best readied for the review that follows adoption.