Oxfordshire council area

Selling Land in the Vale of White Horse

The Vale of White Horse says it has 5.26 years of housing land, but in September 2026 an inspector deciding an appeal at Drayton found the previous year's figure below five. Across Abingdon, Wantage, Faringdon and Science Vale, that thin, contested margin matters as much as the Joint Local Plan's final hearings.

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Abingdon, Wantage, Faringdon and Science Vale

The Local Plan 2031 Part 1 describes the Vale as "a predominantly rural area located in the south-west of Oxfordshire", with the Thames along its northern and eastern edges and the North Wessex Downs to the south. Between them lie three market towns and the research campuses that set this district apart.

The adopted plan ranks its settlements, and the ranking matters:

Market towns. Abingdon-on-Thames, Wantage and Faringdon.
Local service centres. Botley and Grove.
Larger villages. Among them Drayton, Kennington, Radley, Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor, Steventon, Harwell, Sutton Courtenay, Milton, Shrivenham and Stanford-in-the-Vale.
Science Vale. The plan calls it "an internationally significant location for innovation and science-based research and business", with enterprise zones at Harwell Campus and Milton Park, and expects about 15,850 of the district's 23,000 new jobs to 2031 there.
A heavy builder. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 records 3,699 homes against 1,922 needed, a result of 192%, and the council's monitoring shows 1,211, 1,360 and 1,168 completions in the three years to March 2024.

The plan notes that a large part of its Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Fringe sub-area lies in the Oxford Green Belt, and the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers the south. Most growth has therefore gone to the towns and larger villages in between.

The Vale of White Horse 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
192%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
5.26 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the standard method, 970 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Vale of White Horse District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
3,699
of 1,922 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
December 2016
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.

5.26 Years, and 266 Homes to Spare

Both parts of the adopted Local Plan 2031 are more than five years old, Part 1 from December 2016 and Part 2 from October 2019, so supply is measured against the government's standard method. The council's September 2026 statement, with a base date of 1 April 2026, sets out the sums:

Source: Vale of White Horse District Council, five-year housing land supply report, September 2026.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Standard method requirement	970 homes a year, 4,850 over five years
Buffer	5%, reflecting strong delivery
Five-year requirement with buffer	5,092 homes
Category A sites (detailed permissions and smaller sites)	3,118 homes
Category B sites (outline permissions and allocations)	2,006 homes
Windfall allowance	234 homes
Deliverable supply	5,358 homes
Result	5.26 years, 266 homes above five years

More than a third of the supply sits in Category B, sites whose delivery the council has to prove with clear evidence, and a cut of more than 266 homes from any part of the count would take the figure below five years.

What a Full Supply Means for a Field

While the council's figure stands above five years, a supply shortfall cannot be used as the evidence of unmet need that policy S5 of the August 2026 framework looks for beyond a settlement's edge. Plots and yards inside a settlement are different: policy S4 favours homes there unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits, whatever the numbers say. S5 does not reach land in the Oxford Green Belt at all. There, grey belt has its own need test, usually shown by a supply short of five years or a delivery result below 75%, and larger schemes must meet the Golden Rules, as our grey belt guide explains. For edge-of-village land, the route turns on whether the council's figure holds up, and it has already been tested.

Drayton, September 2026: An Inspector Counts Again

On 11 September 2026 an inspector, Stephen Wilkinson, allowed an appeal for up to 31 homes on land west of Little Smiths Farm, Drayton. The council had claimed 5.34 years for the five years from 1 April 2025. His decision removed 474 homes, 44 from Category A and 430 from Category B, against a requirement of 4,982, and put the supply at about 4.9 years. On the largest cut, land west of Great Western Parkway, he found the council's build-out assumptions "speculative" next to the developers' own figures, which "reflect their local views of site development".

All four Category B reductions, 430 homes in total, from appeal decision 6005108 (11 September 2026).
Category B site	Homes the inspector removed
Land west of Great Western Parkway, phases 3P and 6T	265
North of Abingdon-on-Thames	70
Land at Crab Hill	65
Rogers Concrete	30

With the supply below five years, he found the scheme consistent with policy S5. Drayton is a larger village in the plan, and he judged the site well related to it in landscape terms and by its transport links, with no evidence that local infrastructure could not cope. He gave the Joint Local Plan only limited weight and treated the 2015 Drayton neighbourhood plan's boundary as out of date, since it left out newer development.

Two Figures, a Year Apart

The council's 5.26 years and the inspector's 4.9 years are not a straight contradiction. The inspector tested the earlier statement, at a base date of 1 April 2025. The September 2026 statement is a fresh count at 1 April 2026, with a higher five-year requirement (5,092 homes with the buffer, against 4,982) and a new list of sites. What Drayton shows is how an inspector treats optimistic build-out rates on large sites, and the 266-home margin in the new count is smaller than the 474 homes removed last time. We make no forecast, but the figure can be tested again at appeal, and we prepare edge-of-village land for either outcome.

The 2016 Plan's Three Sub-Areas

Part 1 of the plan requires at least 20,560 homes between 2011 and 2031, and a further 2,200 were later added towards Oxford's unmet need. The council's monitoring report for 2023/24 splits the total across three sub-areas:

Homes by sub-area from the Authority Monitoring Report 2023/24; allocations from Core Policy 4 of the Local Plan 2031 Part 1.
Sub-area	Homes planned	Largest allocations in Part 1
Abingdon-on-Thames and Oxford Fringe	7,638	North of Abingdon (800), East of Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor (280), South of Kennington (270)
South East Vale	11,949	Valley Park (2,550), Grove Airfield (2,500), Crab Hill (1,500), Monks Farm (885)
Western Vale	3,173	North of Shrivenham (500), several sites at Faringdon (950 in all)

More than half the growth is concentrated in the South East Vale, the part the plan links to Science Vale, around Wantage and Grove and at Valley Park, which the plan places adjoining Didcot. In practice a handful of very large sites dominate supply, and each slip on them is felt in the supply figure, as Drayton showed.

The Joint Local Plan From the Vale's Side

The Joint Local Plan 2041 with South Oxfordshire was submitted in December 2024. Its housing topic paper sets the Vale's requirement at 816 homes a year to 2030/31, then 633 a year to 2040/41, or 14,490 homes. The 633 was the standard method in October 2024; the early figure adds 183 a year to finish the 2,200 homes for Oxford agreed in the existing plan.

Today's standard method, used in the supply statement, is 970, but the plan is being examined under the December 2023 framework, which the inspectors confirmed still applies.

After Stage 2 hearings in July and a focused hearing session in September, the inspectors' letter of 15 September 2026 asked for the plan to start in 2025 and to run long enough to give fifteen years of cover after adoption. They want updated evidence on whether the allocations can be delivered, and they wrote that "the base date of the five-year supply calculation should be 1 April 2027".

Putting Land Forward Without a Call for Sites

There is no formal call for sites open. The council's land availability page says "Sites can be submitted to us at any time, and will be considered again in future updates to the Local Plan", provided they can take at least five homes. We handle that submission, and the evidence behind it, for land we take on; our guide to call for sites and local plans explains where it fits.

The Land We Look for in the Vale of White Horse

Fields on the edge of a larger village such as Drayton, Steventon, Sutton Courtenay or Shrivenham, with a road frontage.
Land around Wantage, Grove, Faringdon or Abingdon-on-Thames that could suit the next plan.
Paddocks, yards and plots inside settlements, where policy S4 applies whatever the supply.
Yards and other previously developed land in the Oxford Green Belt, which national policy treats differently from open fields.
Holdings near Harwell Campus and Milton Park, where the plan concentrates jobs.

Our paddocks and small sites page covers the smaller end. For any of these, we agree an option at a fixed price set above today's value and pay for every survey, report and application ourselves. You keep the land in use, and if no permission comes, it stays yours with nothing owed. How it works sets out each step.

The Vale Before and After May 2027

The Joint Local Plan 2041, Step by Step

Stage 3 hearings, from 17 November 2026, on the five-year supply and the sites meant for years six to fifteen after adoption.
The inspectors' report, expected in March 2027 according to the councils' Local Development Scheme of June 2026.
Adoption, expected in May 2027, when the plan takes over from both parts of the Local Plan 2031.

Adoption changes the yardstick. For its first five years, an adopted plan's own requirement normally replaces the standard method in the supply test, and the submitted Vale figures are lower than today's 970. A rule added on 1 July 2026 complicates this. When applications are decided, a 20% buffer must be added if the requirement was adopted within the past five years, examined against a pre-December 2024 Framework, and comes to no more than 80% of the standard method figure. As this plan is examined under the 2023 Framework, much depends on the figure accepted once the plan period moves: the submitted 816 a year sits a little above 80% of 970, the later 633 well below it. Arguments like Drayton's rest on the current yardstick, and they are strongest in the months before adoption.

The Joint Local Plan 2045

Work on the next joint plan has begun, with a scoping consultation that ran from 8 to 29 September 2026, before any sites are proposed. The councils' published timetable then sets a consultation on the plan's proposed content from 1 June to 13 July 2027, the proposed plan itself from 7 March 2028, submission on 31 October 2028 and adoption on 30 April 2029. Larger holdings around the towns belong in that process, and the sooner their evidence is prepared, the better.

Ridgeway Council

The government decided in July 2026 that most of the district would join West Berkshire and most of South Oxfordshire in a new Ridgeway Council from April 2028, with some wards going to a Greater Oxford Council. On 7 September it paused that decision for review, and the Vale's leader, Councillor Bethia Thomas, called the announcement "a shock to us all". Under the government's review, elections in May 2027 go ahead on today's boundaries, and the district council remains the planning authority.

Questions About Land in the Vale of White Horse

An inspector allowed homes at Drayton on supply grounds. Does that help my land near another village?

It shows how supply is tested, but the council now claims 5.26 years at a new base date, so the Drayton finding does not carry across by itself. Land at a larger village, well related to it, is worth assessing so that evidence is ready if the figure is shown to fall short.

There is no call for sites open. Can I still put my land forward?

Yes. The council accepts sites at any time for its land availability assessment, if they can take at least five homes. We prepare and submit the evidence for land we take on.

Grove Airfield and Crab Hill are enormous. Is there room for more near Wantage and Grove?

Those sites carry much of the adopted plan's growth, and further land will be weighed against them. The 2045 plan will have to find sites for a later period, and land that is ready with evidence is best placed.

I farm on the Downs south of Wantage. Is any development possible?

Large schemes inside the North Wessex Downs are rarely acceptable. Small schemes at village edges, rural exception homes and building conversions can be, once the landscape case is made.

Would Ridgeway Council change the rules for my land?

Not for now. The change is paused for review, so the Vale council keeps deciding applications under its present plan, and the Joint Local Plan 2041 is being examined by the councils that exist today.

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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.