Selling Land in West Oxfordshire

• Fields of 2 acres or more on the edges of Witney, Carterton or Chipping Norton.
• Land against the larger villages, sized to the village's place in the new settlement hierarchy.
• Sites within a reasonable walk of a Cotswold Line station such as Hanborough, Charlbury or Kingham.
• Land outside the National Landscape, or on its edge where views allow.
• Yards and previously developed land in or beside a settlement.

On land we take on, every survey, the planning work and any appeal are ours to fund, at our own risk, and the option price is fixed at the outset, above what the land is worth today. Day to day use of the land carries on until completion. If no permission is granted, nothing is owed and the land stays with you. Our how it works page has the detail.

• 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 council's Annual Monitoring Report for 2024/25 is plain: it "was unable to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply" at 31 March 2025, measured against local housing need of 905 homes a year on the standard method as revised in December 2024. It gives no figure in years. Only 300 homes were completed in 2024/25, about 157 of them affordable, against the plan's step of 1,125 for that year, while 667 more gained permission, including at the East Witney strategic site.

The report puts the shortfall down to "slower than anticipated delivery" on some larger allocated sites. From 2011 to 2025 the district built 8,019 homes against a plan requirement of 9,200, about 1,181 short, having been effectively on track until 2023. Its table of allocations shows where the gap sits:

How the Position Slipped

The council's position statement of October 2023 claimed 5.4 years at 1 April 2023: 570 homes a year, a 64-home shortfall and a 5% buffer made 3,060, against 3,318 deliverable homes. At Land south of Burford Road, Minster Lovell, where 134 homes were proposed, the council defended 5.41 years, but the inspector found 4.38 years, a supply of 2,498 homes, and allowed the appeal on 28 March 2024.

A 2018 Plan and a Higher Yardstick

The Local Plan 2031 was adopted in September 2018, and the monitoring report records that the council reverted to the standard method for supply from 2023/24. It gives the old method's figure then as 549 homes a year; the October 2023 statement, on that year's inputs, used 570. The December 2024 method gives 905, some 356 more than 549, so far more deliverable homes are needed to show five years.

What the Shortfall Does for Land

Because the council states the shortfall itself, national policy treats it as evidence that need is going unmet. Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework supports homes on land beyond a settlement's limits provided the land is well related to that settlement and can be served by roads, schools and drainage. It is evidence to be weighed, not a finding in favour of every field. S5 does not apply to Green Belt land, where grey belt has its own need test. Within the towns and villages, policy S4 applies whatever the supply position: approval unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

The council's Local Plan 2043 page traces the plan from a Your Voice Counts consultation in August 2022, through a focused consultation with a call for sites from August to October 2023 and preferred policy options from June to August 2025, to preferred spatial options, including a revised settlement hierarchy, from 3 November to 22 December 2025. A Carterton strategic study is part of its evidence.

The final draft, prepared under Regulation 19, is the version the council intends to submit. The council's launch announcement calls it the final opportunity to comment before independent examination, and the council's leader says more than 6,900 responses have shaped the plan so far. Drop-in events ran in Witney on 1 September, Carterton on 9 September and Chipping Norton on 10 September, and the consultation ran until 9 October 2026, with every representation going to the Planning Inspectorate alongside the plan.

How Land Is Treated at This Stage

1. Land in the final draft. An allocation carries growing weight as the plan advances, and the evidence behind it will be tested at the hearings.
2. Land left out. Omission sites can still be argued before the inspector through a representation made during the consultation.
3. Land that missed both. The next review, or an application judged on the supply position and the settlement hierarchy, is the way in.

How a site moves from first submission to allocation is covered in our call for sites and local plans guide.

The council's October 2025 timetable, as its monitoring report sets out, placed publication in May 2026, submission in September 2026 and examination and adoption in 2026/27. Publication came later, and comments closed on 9 October 2026, so submission, with every representation made, is the next stage, and a revised timetable giving its date is the one to watch, since the September 2026 submission month in the October 2025 timetable has already gone by. The hearings will be where omission sites and the settlement hierarchy are argued, and where the inspector tests whether the plan meets its housing figure.

Salt Cross and Witney Set the Supply, and a Merger Is Paused

The next monitoring report, for 2025/26, will give the position at 31 March 2026. The council has tied its shortfall to large sites running late, so the first homes at Salt Cross and progress at North and East Witney will shape it. While the council says it is short, S5 carries weight for well placed land; once a new plan is adopted with fresh allocations, the council will be on firmer ground to resist sites it has not chosen.

Delivery is not the pressure point: in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, West Oxfordshire's 104% clears every threshold. Under 95% would mean an action plan, and under 85% a 20% buffer in place of 5%, deepening any shortfall.

On 16 July 2026 the government confirmed three unitary councils for Oxfordshire and West Berkshire from 1 April 2028, with most of West Oxfordshire and Cherwell forming a Northern Oxfordshire Council. On 7 September it announced a review of its reorganisation decisions, pausing them, and confirmed that May 2027 elections will be held on existing boundaries. The district council remains the body taking its plan to examination.

In the Draft, Out of It, or Unsure

• If your land is in the final draft, its evidence needs to be ready for the hearings.
• If it is not, an application may be the more direct route while the council is short of land, where the site suits its place in the settlement hierarchy, with the next review behind that.
• If you are unsure, our free review looks at the draft and your land together.