Oxfordshire council area

Selling Land in Cherwell

Cherwell passes the government's delivery test with a result of 134%, yet its own monitoring finds only 3.1 years of housing land once the homes it agreed to build for Oxford are counted in. Its Local Plan Review 2042, under examination since the summer of 2025, has just passed to a new pair of inspectors.

Free review of your land in Cherwell or call 07958 351879

We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
Your price is agreed up front, in writing
If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing

Banbury, Bicester, the M40 and Oxford's Northern Edge

Cherwell District Council runs north Oxfordshire from its offices at Castle Quay in Banbury, and the district holds two very different kinds of place: the towns of Banbury and Bicester with a wide spread of villages in open country, and a southern strip around Kidlington, Begbroke and Yarnton, close to Oxford and surrounded by its Green Belt.

On the motorway and the Marylebone line. Junctions 9, 10 and 11 of the M40 are in the district, and trains every 30 minutes between London Marylebone and Oxford call at Bicester Village and at Oxford Parkway, which opened in October 2015.
A garden town. The submitted plan asks Bicester to deliver its committed sites and "be the focus for additional development reflecting the town's on-going growth and transformation as a sustainable Garden Town", and it carries forward the North West Bicester eco-town as policy BIC H1.
Kidlington, five miles from Oxford. Kidlington lies about five miles north of the city, and the plan treats it, Begbroke and Yarnton as settlements inset within the Green Belt.
Two layers of adopted plan. The Local Plan Part 1 was adopted on 20 July 2015, and a Partial Review adopted in September 2020 added homes for Oxford's unmet need.
Strong recent building. The council delivered 2,890 homes against a requirement of 2,158 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 134%.

So a paddock outside Bloxham, a yard near Kidlington and a field by Bicester face different tests.

Cherwell 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
134%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.1 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 31 March 2025, measured against a combined requirement of Cherwell's standard method figure and the Partial Review figure for Oxford's unmet need, with past shortfall and a 5% buffer, 1,979 homes a year. Stated by Cherwell District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
2,890
of 2,158 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
September 2020
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Local Plan Review 2042 at examination: inspector confirmed in August 2026 it continues under the December 2023 framework; further hearings to be arranged
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.

Ahead on Delivery, Short on Supply

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:

Source: Cherwell District Council Annual Monitoring Report 2025, tables 14 to 16. Figures rounded to whole homes.
Measure at 31 March 2025	Five-year requirement with 5% buffer	Deliverable homes	Years of supply
Cherwell's own need	5,843	5,063	4.3
Oxford's unmet need (Partial Review sites, including 1,360 homes of past shortfall)	4,053	1,060	1.3
Combined, the figure the council now relies on	9,896	6,123	3.1 years

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".

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 2042 Plan Leans on Land Already Committed

The submitted plan runs from 2020 to 2042. On the council's consultation page its housing requirement is 911 homes a year, 20,042 in all, which the council describes as 81.5% of the district's local housing need of 1,118 a year under the December 2024 guidance. Because it meets at least 80% of that need, the page explains, the plan is examined under the December 2023 framework. The 4,400 homes for Oxford sit on top. The plan's own supply table shows how little of that depends on new land:

From the Cherwell Local Plan Review 2042 proposed submission document (December 2024). The table totals 24,587 homes.
Area	Built since 2020	Already committed	New in this plan	Total to 2042
Banbury	1,632	4,075	770	6,477
Bicester	1,476	6,273	None	7,749
Heyford Park	553	1,048	None	1,601
Kidlington and Woodstock area	172	None	450	622
Rural areas	644	1,129	565	2,338
Partial Review sites for Oxford	None	4,400	None	4,400
Windfall allowance			1,400	1,400

The new allocations are few: 600 homes east of Bloxham Road and 170 at Calthorpe Street in Banbury, 450 south east of Woodstock, and 565 across rural sites, among them land west of Springwell Hill, Bletchingdon.

So the plan is not the wide door it can be elsewhere. Land left out of it will usually look to an application, where the supply position comes in, or to the review that follows. How land wins a place in a later plan is the subject of our call for sites and local plans guide.

Kidlington, Begbroke and the Oxford Green Belt

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.

Banbury, Bicester and the Villages Beyond the Green Belt

North of the Green Belt, the S5 argument can reach every town and village edge. The plan's settlement order puts Banbury and Bicester first, then its Category A villages. Outside the Green Belt these are Adderbury, Ambrosden, Bloxham, Bodicote, Deddington, Hook Norton, Launton, Steeple Aston and the part of Bletchingdon beyond it; Yarnton, also Category A, is inset within it. Heyford Park has its own area strategy.

An application beyond the plan works best when it answers an officer's questions early:

Relationship to the settlement. Land that backs onto existing homes and reads as part of the place.
Scale that suits the place. A few dozen homes can sit well against a Category A village where several hundred would not.
Access and drainage. A safe road frontage and a sensible drainage route, both costed early.

Bicester is a special case. Its total to 2042 rests entirely on sites already committed, only 78 homes were completed there in 2024/25, and the plan expects a further 4,300 at North West Bicester after 2042. A well placed site that could deliver soon speaks to that gap directly.

The Land We Look for 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.

A New Pair of Inspectors and a Plan to Finish

Where the Examination Stands

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.

The Next Supply Figure

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 make no forecast, but land outside the Green Belt is best prepared while the shortfall stands.

A New Council Map, on Hold

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.

What This Means for Timing

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.

Questions About Land in Cherwell

Cherwell builds more homes than the government asks. Why would an application on my field succeed?

Because the five-year test counts Oxford's homes too, and on that basis the council itself reports 3.1 years. Beyond the Green Belt, that gap is evidence that homes are needed, provided the land sits well against a settlement.

My land is next to one of the Partial Review sites north of Oxford. Does that help?

Being next to an allocation does not take your land out of the Green Belt, though it can change how much the land still does for Green Belt purposes. The route is usually grey belt or previously developed land, and we test which applies before any spend.

I farm outside Deddington. Is that a Category A village?

Yes. Deddington is one of the Category A villages in the submitted plan, the tier below Banbury and Bicester. Land that sits well against the village and is of a scale that suits it is the kind we review.

Should I wait for the new inspectors to finish before doing anything?

Not usually. Applications are decided now, under the adopted plan and national policy, and the shortfall carries weight today.

If Cherwell becomes part of Northern Oxfordshire, will my planning position change?

Not overnight. The change is paused for review, and adopted plans normally remain in force until new ones replace them.

Tell Us About Your Land in Cherwell

It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly. We reply within 2 working days, in confidence.

About your land

Which council area is the land in?

Own land in more than one area? Choose one here and tell us about the others below.

Postcode or nearest village *

Approximate size in acres

About 4.0 hectares. Not sure? Give your best guess.

Current use

Where is it?

Access

Land Registry title number (optional)

Your details

We need a phone number or an email address, whichever you prefer.

Your name *

Phone

Best time to call (optional)

Anything else we should know? (optional)

We use your details only to reply about your land. We do not contact the council or anyone else about it without your agreement. See our privacy notice.

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.