Oxfordshire council area

Selling Land in South Oxfordshire

South Oxfordshire builds far more homes than the delivery test asks, yet its own September 2026 statement shows only 3.98 years of housing land, because its plan has passed five years old and the yardstick has changed. That gap, and a Joint Local Plan that is still being examined, shape what is possible for land here over the next year.

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Didcot, Henley, the Chilterns and the Oxford Fringe

South Oxfordshire takes in Didcot, Henley-on-Thames, Thame, Wallingford and Watlington, a long list of villages from Chalgrove and Berinsfield to Goring, Woodcote and Sonning Common, and several of the largest sites planned on the edge of Oxford itself. Its monitoring report for 2023/24 sums up what shapes planning here:

Two protected landscapes. The council's monitoring report names the North Wessex Downs and the Chilterns, both National Landscapes, formerly Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Part of the Oxford Green Belt. The council granted 146 permissions in the Green Belt in 2023/24, most of them for household development, so Green Belt policy runs through everyday planning here.
Didcot Garden Town. The government awarded garden town status to Didcot in 2015 after a joint bid by this council and Vale of White Horse.
Science Vale. In the council's words, the Science Vale area "extends from Culham and Didcot to Wantage and Grove", a shared focus for jobs and growth with the Vale.
Strong delivery. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 records 3,115 homes built against 1,825 needed, a result of 171%.

For a landowner the geography that matters comes down to three questions: which side of the Green Belt line the land sits on, whether it is inside a National Landscape, and how far it is from a town with services.

South Oxfordshire 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
171%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.98 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the standard method, 1,208 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by South Oxfordshire District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
3,115
of 1,825 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
December 2020
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Joint Local Plan 2041 at examination: stage 3 hearings from 17 November 2026; Joint Local Plan 2045 scoping held September 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.

Short by 1,298 Homes on the Council's Own Count

The council's five-year housing land supply report, published in September 2026 with a base date of 1 April 2026, finds 3.98 years for the five years to March 2031. The reason is not slow building. The Local Plan 2035 was adopted on 10 December 2020, so its housing figure is now more than five years old, and national policy then measures supply against the government's standard method instead. The calculation runs like this:

Source: South Oxfordshire District Council, five-year housing land supply report, September 2026.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement	1,208 homes, the standard method figure
Five years at that rate	6,040 homes
Buffer	5%, the lowest available, because delivery is well above target
Five-year requirement with buffer	6,342 homes
Sites with detailed permission, or smaller sites with any permission (Category A)	3,046 homes
Outline permissions, allocations and similar, where there is clear evidence of a start within five years (Category B)	1,700 homes
Windfall allowance	298 homes
Deliverable supply	5,044 homes
Result	3.98 years, an under-supply of 1,298 homes

The council says it will use the statement as a material consideration in deciding applications.

Outside the Green Belt

Where supply falls below five years, the August 2026 framework's policy S5 treats that as evidence that homes are needed beyond a settlement's edge. It is not an automatic permission: the land must be well related to the town or village, and roads, schools and drainage must be able to cope. Where a town or larger village lies beyond the Green Belt, well placed land on its edge can be looked at on that basis today rather than waiting for a new plan.

Inside the Green Belt

S5 does not reach Green Belt land. There the tests are whether the site is grey belt, contributing little to the purposes the Green Belt serves, and whether homes are shown to be needed. A shortfall in supply is accepted evidence of that need, so a grey belt case for housing can be made here today, unlike in districts with a full five years. The Green Belt purposes, and the Golden Rules that follow, are explained in our grey belt guide.

In the Chilterns or the North Wessex Downs

A National Landscape sets its own high bar whatever the supply, and national policy allows major development inside one only in exceptional circumstances. Small, well designed schemes at a village edge can succeed, judged on their setting.

Seven Strategic Sites in the 2035 Plan

The Local Plan 2035 set a base requirement of 900 homes a year, rising later in the plan period, with an extra share to help meet Oxford's unmet need. Most of the growth sits on large strategic allocations, which the monitoring report lists:

From the South Oxfordshire Authority Monitoring Report 2023/24.
Allocation	Policy	Homes planned
Chalgrove Airfield	STRAT7	About 3,000
Land adjacent to Culham Science Centre	STRAT9	About 3,500
Berinsfield Garden Village	STRAT10i	Around 1,700
Grenoble Road, Oxford	STRAT11	About 3,000
Northfield	STRAT12	About 1,800
Land north of Bayswater Brook	STRAT13	About 1,513
Wheatley Campus	STRAT14	About 500

The same report shows how slowly the biggest sites have moved. At March 2024, Chalgrove Airfield, Culham, Berinsfield, Grenoble Road and Northfield had no homes permitted, and the report notes that the Joint Local Plan proposes to drop Chalgrove Airfield as an allocation. Wheatley Campus had outline permission for 487 net homes, and on land north of Bayswater Brook the planning committee resolved on 9 October 2024 to grant permission once a section 106 agreement was signed.

The September 2026 statement counts Category B sites only "where there is clear evidence that housing completions will begin on site within five years". It carries assessments for land adjacent to Culham Campus, land at Berinsfield and Grenoble Road, yet none of the three adds a single home to its 1,700 Category B total. Of the strategic allocations, only land north of Bayswater Brook appears there, with 300 homes. Every delay on a strategic site feeds into the next calculation, which is why smaller sites that can start soon carry weight here.

A Joint Plan Built on the Old Need Figure

The Joint Local Plan 2041, prepared with Vale of White Horse, was submitted on 9 December 2024. Its housing topic paper sets South Oxfordshire's requirement at 909 homes a year to 2035/36, falling to 579 a year to 2040/41, or 16,530 homes in all. The 909 figure is the standard method as it stood in October 2024, 579 a year, plus 330 a year towards the 4,950 homes the district agreed to take from Oxford.

Set against the 1,208 a year now used for supply, the gap is plain. The plan is being examined under transitional rules that let it proceed on the earlier method, and it relies mainly on sites already allocated rather than many new ones.

Oxford's Need, and the Setback of 2025

After the first hearings in June 2025, the inspectors wrote on 1 October that the councils had not met the duty to cooperate with the city. Their letter found "a persistent failure to progress beyond a statement of difference" and offered two options: withdraw the plan, or receive a report recording the failure.

The councils did neither. A ministerial statement in November 2025 said the duty would be removed from plans in the current system, and in January 2026 the inspectors confirmed they must still test the plan against national policy on maintaining effective cooperation, and called a procedural meeting to restart the examination. Stage 2 hearings opened on 7 July 2026 in Abingdon, with a further session on 9 September, according to the examination page.

The Land We Look for in South Oxfordshire

Fields adjoining Didcot, Wallingford or Thame outside the Green Belt, where S5 can apply while the supply is short.
Land on the edge of larger villages such as Chalgrove, Crowmarsh Gifford or Goring, with road access and services nearby.
Green Belt land that is enclosed, previously developed, or contributes little to the Green Belt's purposes.
Yards, disused buildings and paddocks inside settlements, judged under policy S4 whatever the supply.
Larger holdings that could be put forward for the Joint Local Plan 2045.

What decides a site here is evidence: access, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage and a clear case on need. We commission and pay for all of it. Our option agreements set your price on day one, higher than the land's present value, and you carry on farming or using the land until the sale completes. If permission is not granted, you keep the land and owe nothing. The farmland page describes the kinds of holding we take on.

Stage 3 in November, and a Second Plan to 2045

The Last Hearings, Then Adoption

On 15 September 2026 the inspectors wrote that the plan needs its base date moved to 2025 and its end date extended, with possible changes to the Thame figures and to policy HOU2 on sources of housing supply. Their letter fixes Stage 3 hearings from 17 November 2026 and asks for a five-year supply calculation based at 1 April 2027. The councils' Local Development Scheme of June 2026 expects the inspectors' report in March 2027 and adoption in May 2027.

This is the date to watch. Once a plan is adopted, its own requirement normally becomes the yardstick for supply for five years. If South Oxfordshire's plan is adopted with a figure close to the 909 a year submitted, rather than the 1,208 used today, the sum would rest on a smaller number. National policy has added a counterweight. From 1 July 2026, decision makers use a 20% buffer where a plan's requirement was adopted less than five years ago, was examined under a Framework older than December 2024, and stands at or below four fifths of the standard method figure. This plan is examined under the December 2023 Framework, and 909 is about three quarters of 1,208, so on the submitted numbers the higher buffer would be in play. We make no forecast of the final figure or the result, but a case that leans on today's shortfall is on firmest ground before adoption.

The Joint Local Plan 2045

The councils are already preparing their next plan alongside this one, having given notice of it on 19 June 2026, and the published timetable runs as follows:

From the Joint Local Plan 2045 timetable, in effect from 19 June 2026. Dates are the councils' and may move.
Stage	Councils' date
Scoping consultation	8 to 29 September 2026
Gateway 1 self-assessment	By 31 October 2026
Proposed content consultation	1 June to 13 July 2027
Proposed plan consultation	7 March to 18 April 2028
Submission for examination	31 October 2028
Adoption	30 April 2029

Delivery Test and Supply

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year; at 171%, none of its consequences applies. Supply matters more. Each new supply statement tracks another year of progress, or delay, on the strategic sites, and the inspectors want the next count at 1 April 2027.

Ridgeway Council, on Hold

On 16 July 2026 the government confirmed a new Ridgeway Council from April 2028, joining West Berkshire with most of South Oxfordshire and the Vale, beside a Greater Oxford Council covering the city and its immediate surroundings. On 7 September 2026 the government paused its decisions for a review, and the May 2027 elections will use the current council boundaries. South Oxfordshire's leader regretted the time spent on a process "that is subsequently paused".

Questions About Land in South Oxfordshire

The council builds more homes than it needs. Why is it short of land?

Because its plan is now more than five years old, supply is measured against the standard method, 1,208 homes a year, rather than the plan's own figure. On that basis the September 2026 statement finds 3.98 years.

My field is next to Wallingford, outside the Green Belt. Can I apply now?

It may be worth it. With supply short of five years, policy S5 treats need as evidenced, but the land must relate well to the town and infrastructure must be able to cope. We look at access and drainage first.

My land is in the Oxford Green Belt. Does the shortfall help?

Not through S5, which stops at the Green Belt line. It does help a grey belt case, because the need test is met while supply is short. Whether the land counts as grey belt depends on how much it does for the Green Belt's purposes.

Will the Joint Local Plan close the door when it is adopted?

It could narrow it. The submitted plan sets a lower yearly figure than the one used for supply today, and an adopted plan's figure generally becomes the yardstick. That is why timing matters in the months before adoption.

If Ridgeway Council goes ahead, who decides my application?

For now, South Oxfordshire District Council. Reorganisation is paused for review, the May 2027 elections use today's boundaries, and the joint plans are being prepared by the two existing councils.

Tell Us About Your Land in South Oxfordshire

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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.