Suffolk council area
Selling Land in East Suffolk
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East Suffolk still decides applications under two local plans, the Suffolk Coastal plan of September 2020 and the Waveney plan of March 2019, and both are past the age at which the government's standard method replaces their housing targets. Measured against that method, the council finds 3.07 years of housing land at 31 March 2025 and said in December 2025 that it would apply the presumption in favour of sustainable development to windfall sites in both plan areas. A single new East Suffolk Local Plan is being prepared, with over 500 sites put forward and adoption timetabled for April 2029.
- 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
In short
We buy land in East Suffolk and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.
East Suffolk can show 3.07 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 September 2020, 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.
East Suffolk 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
91%
Below 95%: the council must publish an action plan to improve delivery.
Five-year housing land supply
3.07 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 31 March 2025, measured against the standard method, 1,667 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by East Suffolk Council (the Suffolk Coastal plan area shows 3.09 years and the Waveney plan area 2.88 years).
Checked sourceHomes built against homes needed
2,459
of 2,713 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
Latest step
Call for sites held 20 October 2025 to 9 January 2026 and scoping consultation 10 June to 29 July 2026; the council's timetable puts consultation on plan content and evidence in May to June 2027 and adoption in April 2029
Checked source
See how East Suffolk 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 East Suffolk
- Fields and paddocks on the edge of Lowestoft, Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth, Leiston, Saxmundham, Framlingham and Woodbridge, with a road frontage and services within reach.
- Plots, large gardens, backland and former yards inside the settlement boundaries of Lowestoft, Felixstowe, the east of Ipswich and the market towns, where policy S4 applies.
- Holdings of 20 acres or more within reach of a town, which the new plan will need if it is to move from 916 homes a year to 1,667.
- Land around Leiston and Saxmundham, where the council's review records accommodation pressures from Sizewell C.
We take the land on under an option, with the price fixed at the outset above what the land is worth in its current use, then pay for the whole planning case ourselves: the habitats evidence, landscape work, drainage and flood evidence, access and the plan submissions. The land stays yours to use until completion, and should permission never come you keep it, owing nothing. Our farmland page shows the kinds of holding that suit this district best.
The planning detail in full
Two Former Districts, One Coast, and the Country's Largest Container Port
East Suffolk Council was formed on 1 April 2019 by merging Suffolk Coastal and Waveney. The district runs down the North Sea coast from Lowestoft, its largest town, to Felixstowe, its second, and had 246,058 people at the 2021 census. Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth, Southwold, Leiston, Saxmundham, Aldeburgh, Framlingham and Woodbridge make up the rest of its towns.
- No Green Belt. None of the 16 Green Belts in the government's Green Belt statistics surrounds a Suffolk town, as our Suffolk page explains. What decides a field here is its relation to a settlement, the coast and the protected sites.
- The port and the power station. Felixstowe has the country's largest container port, and the council's September 2025 review of the Suffolk Coastal plan records that construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station had begun.
- A protected coast. Much of the coast lies in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and now known as a National Landscape; the estuaries, heaths and marshes carry Special Protection Area, Special Area of Conservation and Ramsar designations; and a small northern part of the district lies in the Broads, where the Broads Authority is the planning authority.
Short of Five Years in Both Plan Areas, Against 1,667 Homes a Year
The council's statement of housing land supply at 31 March 2025, published in December 2025, finds 3.07 years for East Suffolk as a whole, and works the sum for each plan area too:
| Part of the calculation | East Suffolk | Suffolk Coastal area | Waveney area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly need, standard method | 1,667 homes | 981 homes | 723 homes |
| Buffer | 5%, from the 2023 delivery result of 103% | 5% | 5% |
| Five-year requirement with buffer | 8,752 homes (1,750 a year) | 5,150 homes (1,030 a year) | 3,796 homes (759 a year) |
| Deliverable supply | 5,368 homes | 3,182 homes | 2,183 homes |
| Shortfall | 3,384 homes | 1,968 homes | 1,613 homes |
| Result | 3.07 years | 3.09 years | 2.88 years |
Two things drive the shortfall. The standard method lifted the district's need from 905 homes a year to 1,667, against 916 in the two plans combined. And both plans are old: Waveney turned five on 20 March 2024 and Suffolk Coastal on 23 September 2025, and the council's reviews of March 2025 (Waveney) and September 2025 (Suffolk Coastal) found each in need of an update, so supply is measured against the standard method. The buffer rests on the 2023 delivery result; the Housing Delivery Test 2025 result of 91% also clears 85%, so it would stay at 5%.
The Day the Suffolk Coastal Plan Turned Five
Until 23 September 2025 the Suffolk Coastal area was measured against its plan's 542 homes a year. The council's interim housing position statement, in force from that day, re-measured the 31 March 2024 position against the standard method and found 3.36 years there, 3.23 in the Waveney area and 3.38 for the district: the same land against a new yardstick. The December 2025 statement, a year on, found less again as fewer homes were expected. It is the council's current position, and both sets of figures are well short of five years.
The interim statement, written under the December 2024 framework, says the council "is not able to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply in both Local Plan areas" and "will apply paragraph 11(d) in decision making", the presumption in favour of sustainable development, and the December 2025 statement records that this position "remains unchanged". It is aimed, in its own words, "towards windfall development that would otherwise be contrary to the relevant Local Plan", not at the allocated sites. An unallocated field beside a village is exactly that. Under the August 2026 framework, which has since replaced paragraph 11(d), the shortfall is evidence of unmet need for policy S5 to weigh, not an automatic finding, and with no Green Belt here S5 can reach any town or village edge where land is well related to the settlement and served by infrastructure.
Two Plans That Allocated More Than They Needed
The Suffolk Coastal Local Plan, adopted in September 2020 for 2018 to 2036, was examined against a need of 542 homes a year, 9,756 in all. The inspector's report of 8 September 2020 records provision for 11,353 homes, or 12,153 with windfalls, "a significant contingency" of about 16% or 25%. The council's interim statement says the same of both plans: they "allocated land for more dwellings than their respective housing requirements".
The plans lean on a few very large sites, and the council's housing action plan of July 2025 says plainly that "the slow progress of strategic sites presents a major issue for housing delivery". It lists eight, for 10,430 homes between them:
| Strategic site | Homes | Building under way in July 2025? |
|---|---|---|
| North of Felixstowe Garden Neighbourhood | 2,000 | Only at Candlet Road, part of the site |
| Brightwell Lakes, east of Ipswich | 2,000 | Yes; it had outline permission when the plan was examined |
| South Saxmundham Garden Neighbourhood | 800 | No |
| Kirkley Waterfront, Lowestoft | 1,380 | No; the council has prepared a planning position statement for it |
| North of Lowestoft Garden Village | 1,300 | No |
| Land south of The Street, Carlton Colville | 900 | No |
| Beccles and Worlingham Garden Neighbourhood | 1,250 | No |
| Woods Meadow, Lowestoft | 800 | Yes |
The council's review of the Suffolk Coastal plan lists 588 homes in that area in 2018/19 and 660 in 2019/20, then 511, 499, 450 and 533 in the four years to 2023/24, every one below the plan's 542; across the district the action plan's best year, 857 homes in 2023/24, was a little over half of 1,667. The review concludes "that a Local Plan review is needed", noting that Sizewell C "has created additional demand for accommodation for its construction and operation workforce". The action plan flags one more limit: "emerging information on limitations to capacity at some water recycling centres, which may have implications for housing developments".
Where a Field Sits: The Hierarchy, the Coast and the Broads
Policy SCLP3.2 of the Suffolk Coastal plan sets a five-tier hierarchy, "Major Centre, Market Towns, Large Villages, Small Villages and Countryside" in the inspector's words. Felixstowe and the east of Ipswich, around Kesgrave and Martlesham Heath, are the two Major Centres, and the plan makes significant allocations at the market towns of Saxmundham and Woodbridge and the large villages of Trimley St Martin and Trimley St Mary. The plan's policies map draws the settlement boundaries, and where your land sits against those lines fixes its route:
- Inside a settlement boundary. Plots, gardens, backland and old yards are judged under policy S4, which leans towards approval: refusal needs harm that would substantially outweigh the benefits.
- Adjoining a settlement. Land that sits properly against a town or village is where the shortfall does its work: an application weighing it under S5, the windfall case the council's interim statement is aimed at.
- Open countryside. A field with no settlement beside it is a case for the new Local Plan rather than an application, and land in the Broads is decided by the Broads Authority, not the council.
The Coast and the Protected Sites
The inspector's report shows how the protected sites shape the largest allocations. The North Felixstowe and South Saxmundham garden neighbourhoods must provide "significant areas of Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) to mitigate potential impacts on European sites", and Brightwell Lakes must provide SANG too. New homes also pay into the Suffolk Coast RAMS, which covers seven protected sites from Benacre to the Stour and Orwell estuaries; its zone runs 13 km from them and extends over all the northern part of the old Waveney district, for little terns. As of 6 April 2026 the tariff is £150.27 a home in Zone A and £396.01 in Zone B, East Suffolk sites fall in either, and payment is due on commencement unless otherwise agreed.
The coast is managed under Shoreline Management Plans, set out by Coastal Partnership East: SMP7 covers Lowestoft Ness to Landguard Point at Felixstowe, with SMP6 to the north and SMP8 to the south. Each aims "to provide a strategy for managing flood and erosion risk for a particular stretch of coastline" over the next 100 years, and the partnership records a change of policy from no active intervention to managed realignment following a 2019 consultation. Land in an eroding frontage or a flood zone is judged on that policy before any housing argument begins; our flood risk guide explains the sequential test.
One Plan for East Suffolk: Over 500 Sites and a Timetable to April 2029
A single East Suffolk Local Plan will replace both, guiding "how the area grows and develops up to 2045". The call for sites ran from 20 October 2025 to 9 January 2026. Slides the council presented to its town and parish forum in February 2026 record that "over 500 sites have come forward from across the East Suffolk area" and that after the final assessment stage they "will be considered for inclusion in the Local Plan".
The council then held a scoping consultation on "what matters most" from 10 June to 5pm on 29 July 2026, and will publish a summary of the responses. Its timetable sets out what follows:
| Stage | Date in the council's timetable |
|---|---|
| Call for sites | Held 20 October 2025 to 9 January 2026 |
| Scoping consultation | Held 10 June to 29 July 2026 |
| Consultation on proposed plan content and evidence | May to June 2027 |
| Consultation on the proposed plan | February to March 2028 |
| Examination | September 2028 to March 2029 |
| Adoption | April 2029 |
Each of those steps, and what it asks of a landowner, is set out in our call for sites guide. With need nearly double what the old plans asked for, and those plans short even after allocating more than they needed, the new plan will need new land, and a good deal of it.
East Suffolk as Its Plans Age and the New One Starts
The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, put East Suffolk at 91% for April 2022 to March 2025, so an action plan is required. The council expected worse: its July 2025 action plan called a result over 75% "unlikely" before a new plan is adopted, "due to the impact of the much higher housing need figure, which becomes relevant once plans are over five years old". The likely reason for the gap is timing: the Suffolk Coastal plan turned five in September 2025, after the period measured. The following edition would ordinarily measure April 2023 to March 2026; below 85% would add a 20% buffer, and below 75% policy S5 would treat unmet need as evidenced rather than weighed.
The Supply Statement and the Plan Timetable
The December 2025 statement noted "a decline in the number of units expected to come forward in the next 5 years". Both plans were more than five years old by 31 March 2026, the base date the next annual statement would normally use.
Reorganisation changes nothing for now. In its announcement of 7 September 2026 the government withdrew its decisions for Suffolk, Essex, Hampshire and Norfolk "in light of new legal advice" and confirmed that the May 2027 elections go ahead on existing boundaries. East Suffolk Council remains the authority preparing the plan.
Edge-of-Settlement Land Now, Open Countryside Through the Plan
- Land adjoining a town or village can be reviewed now, while both plan areas are short of five years.
- Open countryside is best prepared for the consultation on the plan's content and evidence, which the council's timetable puts in May to June 2027.
Questions About Land in East Suffolk
My field is in the old Waveney district. Which supply figure applies to me?
The council works out a figure for each plan area as well as the district, and the Waveney figure in the December 2025 statement is 2.88 years, the lower of the two. Both areas are short, so a well placed field near Beccles or Halesworth is judged on the same footing as one near Woodbridge.
The plans allocated far more homes than they needed. Why does the council still say it is short?
Because the yardstick changed. The plans provided for 916 homes a year across the district; the standard method now asks for 1,667. The big allocations are also slow: in July 2025 building was under way on only three of the eight strategic sites, one of them only in part, and only homes expected within five years count.
I did not put my land into the call for sites by January 2026. Have I missed the new plan?
Not necessarily. The call was the first step, and the council's timetable has consultations on the plan's content and evidence in May to June 2027 and on the proposed plan in February to March 2028. Land adjoining a settlement need not wait for the plan at all while the supply is short.
My land is near the coast at Southwold. Is erosion a bar?
It depends on the Shoreline Management Plan policy for that stretch and the flood zone. Land in an eroding frontage or a high flood zone is very unlikely to be released for homes; land a little inland on higher ground is a different case, and we read both first.
Does Sizewell C help or hinder land near Leiston?
The council's review of the Suffolk Coastal plan records both sides: extra demand for housing for the construction and operating workforce, and effects "in terms of accommodation pressures and need for employment space, as well as transport related matters". We look at where your land sits against Leiston's settlement boundary and its roads first.
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 East Suffolk
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.
More in Suffolk
County overview
Selling Land in Suffolk
Selling land across Suffolk? We agree your price up front and pay for all the planning. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing.
Neighbouring council · Housing Delivery Test: 63%
Selling Land in Ipswich
Selling land in Ipswich? We agree your price up front and pay for all the planning. If it fails, you keep your land and owe nothing. Supply: 3.46 years.
Neighbouring Councils Beyond Suffolk
- Great YarmouthNorfolk · 6.06 years of housing land
Sources
- East Suffolk Council: Statement of Housing Land Supply as at 31 March 2025 (December 2025)
- East Suffolk Council: Interim Housing Position Statement, December 2025 update (December 2025)
- East Suffolk Council: Housing Action Plan, identifying actions to support the delivery of new housing (July 2025)
- East Suffolk Council: Suffolk Coastal Local Plan Statutory 5 year Review Assessment (September 2025)
- Planning Inspectorate: Report on the Examination of the Suffolk Coastal Local Plan (September 2020)
- East Suffolk Council: Town and Parish Forum presentation (February 2026)
- East Suffolk Council: Preparing a New Local Plan in East Suffolk, scoping consultation and timetable (June 2026)
- Ipswich Borough Council: Suffolk Coast Recreational Avoidance and Mitigation Strategy (RAMS)
- Coastal Partnership East: Shoreline Management Plans
- GOV.UK: Review of local government reorganisation launched (September 2026)
- GOV.UK: Local authority Green Belt statistics for England, 2024 to 2025 (October 2025)
- Wikipedia: East Suffolk District
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.