Staffordshire council area

Selling Land in Stafford Borough

Checked on 29 September 2026

Stafford Borough has built above the target in its plan of June 2014, and the strategic sites at Stone and east of Stafford are finished or nearly so. Yet the council's statement at 31 March 2026 finds only 1.95 years of housing land against the government's figure, work on its last draft plan stopped in March 2025, and the proposed Meecebrook garden community now waits on a new plan to 2045.

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In short

We buy land in Stafford Borough and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

Stafford Borough can show 1.95 years of housing land, short of the five years national policy expects. That shortfall is evidence of need which decisions must weigh, so a well placed field next to a town or village can make a case outside the local plan. It is not a guarantee. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from June 2014, more than five years ago.

We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.

The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.

Stafford Borough 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
149%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
1.95 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 31 March 2026, measured against local housing need by the standard method, 760 homes a year, plus a 20% buffer. Stated by Stafford Borough Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
1,666
of 1,120 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
June 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
New plan to 2045 started: scoping consultation held 8 June to 28 July 2026; timetable puts Gateway 1 on 30 October 2026 and adoption on 30 April 2029
Checked source

See how Stafford compares with the other 143 councils we cover

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.

The Land We Look for in Stafford Borough

Fields on the edge of Stafford or Stone outside the Green Belt, beside the settlement boundary with a road frontage.
Paddocks and small plots beside Eccleshall, Gnosall, Hixon, Haughton, Weston or Woodseaves, suited to a handful of homes.
Previously developed land and weakly performing Green Belt land around Barlaston, Tittensor and Yarnfield, or in the south east of the borough.
Land beside smaller villages that could take a rural exception scheme of affordable homes.
Plots, yards and large gardens inside Stafford and Stone, where policy S4 applies.
Larger holdings that could form part of the growth the plan to 2045 has to find.

Whichever fits, we pay for all the planning work, from access and drainage to ecology and the Cannock Chase checks, under an option agreement, at a price agreed before we begin and above the land's current-use value. You carry on using the land, and if permission does not come, the land stays yours and you owe nothing. Our how it works page shows the stages in order.

The planning detail in full

A County Town, a Market Town and Eleven Service Villages

Stafford Borough covers more than 230 square miles, with Green Belt beside the Potteries and around Cannock Chase. Its adopted plan ranks its places in a clear order, and that order still steers where new homes go:

Stafford first. The county town takes 70% of the plan's new housing under Spatial Principle SP4, most of it on strategic development locations to the north, west and east of the town.
Stone second. The market town takes 10%, and its strategic site to the west and south is now complete.
Eleven key service villages. Eccleshall, Gnosall, Hixon, Great Haywood, Little Haywood with Colwich, Haughton, Weston, Woodseaves, Barlaston, Tittensor and Yarnfield share 12%, and the rest of the borough 8%.
Two areas of Green Belt. The plan records Green Belt around the North Staffordshire conurbation and in the south east of the borough, the second taking in Cannock Chase. Barlaston, Tittensor and Yarnfield are surrounded by or abut the North Staffordshire Green Belt.
Building above target. The council's monitoring report for 2024/25 puts the average completion rate for the plan period at 603 homes a year, against the plan's 500, and the Housing Delivery Test 2025 records 1,666 homes built against 1,120 required, a result of 149%.

Outside those two areas the countryside is not Green Belt, so policy S5 can reach it. Our Staffordshire page sets the borough beside its neighbours.

Short of Five Years Whichever Buffer Is Used

The council's supply statement at 31 March 2026 finds 1.95 years of deliverable housing land. Because the plan's strategic policies passed five years old on 19 June 2019, the statement measures supply against the government's standard method, now 760 homes a year after the affordability figures of March 2026, rather than the plan's 500. Here is its calculation, with our own figures at the ordinary 5% buffer beside it:

Source: Stafford Borough Council, five-year housing land supply statement at 31 March 2026. The right-hand column is our arithmetic from the statement's own numbers, not the council's.
Part of the calculation	Council's statement (20% buffer)	Our arithmetic (5% buffer)
Government's yearly figure	760 homes	760 homes
Buffer added each year	152 homes	38 homes
Five-year requirement	4,560 homes	3,990 homes
Deliverable supply	1,781 homes	1,781 homes
Result	1.95 years	About 2.2 years
Homes short of five years	2,779	2,209

The 1,781 homes are 238 on small sites with permission (after a 10% lapse rate), 438 on large sites, 101 from care accommodation and 1,004 from the strategic sites north and west of Stafford.

Why the Statement Adds 20%, and Why That Is Open to Question

The statement says that from 1 July 2026 the council must apply paragraph 78(c) of the framework, which catches a requirement adopted within the last five years that was examined under a pre-December 2024 framework and sits at 80% or less of the standard method figure, and adds the 20% buffer for decisions. That rule is about recent plans. Stafford's requirement dates from June 2014, and the same statement says it "defaults to the local housing need figure" because the plan is over five years old. The delivery result of 149% is also well clear of the 85% line that brings a 20% buffer on other grounds. So the ordinary 5% buffer fits better, giving about 2.2 years. For a landowner:

The conclusion is the same. At either buffer the borough is more than 2,000 homes short of five years, which is evidence of unmet need to be weighed.
The weight can differ. Decision makers weigh the size of a shortfall, and a correction would lift the figure only to about 2.2 years.
The question returns each year. Each statement takes its own view of the buffer, and an inspector would settle it at appeal.

Stone Finished, North of Stafford About a Third Built

The 2014 plan provides for 10,000 homes from 2011 to 2031, or 500 a year, most of them on four strategic development locations. The council's monitoring report of December 2025 shows how far each has come:

Source: Stafford Borough Council Authority Monitoring Report 2025, covering 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Strategic development location	Allocated	Built to March 2025	Still to come
North of Stafford (policy Stafford 2)	3,275 homes	1,047	Permission for a further 2,228
West of Stafford (policy Stafford 3)	2,200 homes	935	Permission for 913 more, and 352 still allocated
East of Stafford (policy Stafford 4)	653 homes	623	30 still allocated
West and south of Stone (policy Stone 2)	500 homes in the policy	559 permitted units	Site completed in 2024/25

The supply statement expects 347 homes from the northern site and 657 from the western site in the five years from April 2026, and none from the other two. The five-year count measures what will be built in that time, not what is permitted, so the 347 counted north of Stafford is a fraction of the 2,228 that had permission at March 2025. The report's policy text gives 3,100 homes for the northern site and 600 for the eastern, below the site allocations it states, and the table uses those allocations.

The same report records 199 affordable completions in 2024/25, below the plan's target of 210 a year.

Two Edge-of-Settlement Schemes, Both Deferred in July 2026

Spatial Principle SP7 supports development inside settlement boundaries and beyond them only in listed cases, and a shortfall changes how that is weighed. The planning committee reports of 8 July 2026, still working from the earlier figure of 3.37 years at 31 March 2025, explain that the December 2024 framework took the borough's yearly figure from 358 to 749 homes. Two applications for permission in principle outside settlement boundaries were each recommended for approval:

Land off Milford Road, Walton on the Hill. Nine homes on an agricultural field 12 metres from the settlement boundary of Stafford and 60 metres from the Cannock Chase National Landscape. The report notes that the site is not Green Belt, and finds that paragraph 11 of the framework "now applies" because of the lost supply.
Land west of Old House Farm, Woodseaves. Not more than two homes directly beside the settlement boundary of one of the key service villages, where the report finds that the presumption in favour of sustainable development "is now engaged".

The minutes of the same meeting show that the committee deferred both. Milford Road was put off "to allow the applicant to amend the red edge plan taking into consideration concerns regarding the access and highways safety", and Old House Farm "to allow a Habitats Regulation Assessment to take place". Neither is a decision on the principle: a shortfall opens the door to edge-of-settlement land without settling access or habitats. Both were small schemes, the kind of plot our paddocks and small sites page covers.

How National Policy Reads Here

Outside a settlement's limits, policy S5 of the August 2026 framework supports homes on land that relates well to the settlement and is served by infrastructure, provided unmet need is evidenced. With a delivery result of 149%, need is not treated as evidenced automatically here; a supply of 1.95 years counts as evidence of unmet need for the council to weigh rather than an automatic finding. Inside the boundaries policy S4 applies, so the council should approve unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. S5 does not apply in the Green Belt.

Green Belt at Both Ends, Cannock Chase in the South East

In the two Green Belt areas the route is different. Land that does not strongly contribute to Green Belt purposes can count as grey belt, and homes there need evidence of need, which most often means a supply under five years or delivery under 75%. The borough's shortfall meets the first of those today, and the Golden Rules on affordable housing, infrastructure and green space apply to larger schemes. Our grey belt guide explains how the purposes are judged.

The monitoring report records that in 2024/25 no Green Belt scheme above ten homes was permitted, and that 11 homes across eight applications were. Each site is judged on how it performs against the Green Belt purposes.

The Cannock Chase Contribution

Cannock Chase is a National Landscape and contains a Special Area of Conservation. The council's guidance on the SAC says any development that increases population within 15km of it may have a significant effect, and for payments agreed or made between 1 April 2026 and 31 March 2027 it asks £369.58 for each net new home in that zone. The money funds mitigation through a partnership that includes Natural England, the county council and the Forestry Commission.

The contribution was secured with the application at Walton on the Hill, and the need for a Habitats Regulation Assessment held up Woodseaves, so we allow for both from the start.

Meecebrook and the Plan That Stopped

Meecebrook is the council's proposed garden community near Yarnfield and Cold Meece, in the north of the borough. The council secured Garden Community status in 2019 and has received over £1 million of government funding, and its Meecebrook page describes around 6,000 homes with jobs, health provision and a new station on the West Coast Main Line.

The 2022 preferred options for the Local Plan 2020 to 2040 proposed at least 3,000 homes there by 2040 and at least 6,000 in total, within a plan for 10,700 homes, or 535 a year, that left the Green Belt boundaries unaltered. That plan went no further. On 6 March 2025, after the December 2024 framework, Cabinet resolved to stop work on it and to begin a new plan for 2025 to 2045. The council's Meecebrook page now says it is preparing the evidence for that new plan.

What the Pause Means for Other Land

Meecebrook is a proposal, not an allocation, so it plays no part in the five-year supply, and its size and timing are questions for the plan to 2045. On our arithmetic, the government's current figure of 760 homes a year over 20 years would mean 15,200 homes, against 10,700 in the 2022 draft. The council has set no figure for the new plan, so this shows only the scale.

Gateway 1 in October 2026, Adoption Timetabled for April 2029

The council's Local Plan timetable, in force since 3 June 2026, sets out the stages of the plan to 2045:

From Stafford Borough Council's Local Plan timetable, which came into force on 3 June 2026. The council says it will be reviewed as evidence and national policy change.
Stage	Date in the council's timetable
Scoping consultation	8 June to 28 July 2026 (held)
Gateway 1 self-assessment	30 October 2026
Consultation on proposed content and evidence	7 June to 27 July 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	5 June to 17 July 2028
Submission for examination	30 October 2028
Adoption	30 April 2029

The council's new plan page said in September 2026 that its call for sites remained open, and that land already in the 2025 land availability assessment need not be sent again. The consultation on proposed content, timetabled for June and July 2027, is the first consultation on proposed content, so evidence for a site does most good ready before then. Our guide to calls for sites and local plans walks through each of those stages in turn.

Delivery Well Clear of 95%, Supply Measured to Each 31 March

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026. An action plan follows a result under 95%, a 20% buffer one under 85%, and unmet need treated as evidenced under S5 one under 75%. At 149% none of these applies. The council's statements of March 2025 and March 2026 both run to a 31 March base date,, so the next statement in that series would look to the same base date.

Reorganisation Paused for Staffordshire

The Secretary of State told the Commons on 7 September 2026 that reorganisation in 14 areas, Staffordshire among them, would be reviewed and paused, and that elections in May 2027 would go ahead on existing council boundaries. The borough council still decides applications and is preparing the plan to 2045.

What to Do, and When

Edge-of-settlement land outside the Green Belt can be looked at now, while the shortfall is on record.
Green Belt land needs a grey belt case, which the shortfall supports.
Larger holdings suit the call for sites, ready before the 2027 consultation.

Questions About Land in Stafford Borough

Stafford passes the delivery test at 149% but has 1.95 years of land. Which one matters for my field?

Both, in different ways. The delivery result is high enough that need is not treated as evidenced automatically, so the supply figure does the work: outside the Green Belt it is evidence to be weighed under policy S5, and inside it meets the grey belt need test.

My land is near Yarnfield. Does Meecebrook help it or hold it back?

Neither yet. The plan that would have allocated Meecebrook was stopped in March 2025, and its size and timing belong to the plan to 2045, so land nearby is judged on its own merits, including against the North Staffordshire Green Belt, which the adopted plan says surrounds or abuts Yarnfield.

My field is within 15km of Cannock Chase. Can it still get permission?

Yes. The zone does not stop new homes; it brings a contribution for each one, £369.58 for payments agreed or made between April 2026 and March 2027, and a Habitats Regulations check. The Walton on the Hill report of July 2026 shows it secured on a site 60 metres from the National Landscape.

The council's figure uses a 20% buffer that may not apply. Should I wait until that is settled?

No. On either figure the borough is more than 2,000 homes short of five years; the buffer affects the weight, not whether there is a shortfall.

I put land forward for the 2020 to 2040 plan. Do I have to start again?

Not if it is in the council's 2025 land availability assessment: the council says those sites need not be sent again. Land not yet submitted can go in through the call for sites, which the council said in September 2026 remained open.

What price will you pay for my land?

We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.

When would I be paid?

You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.

Tell Us About Your Land in Stafford Borough

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, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.

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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.