West Sussex council area

Selling Land in Arun

Arun's housing delivery result has risen to 84%, clear of the band where unmet need is simply assumed. Its own monitoring, though, still found well under five years of housing land, and on the coastal plain between Bognor Regis and Littlehampton that shortfall is what most edge of village sites turn on.

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Arun Between the Downs and the Sea

Arun District Council covers Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Arundel and parishes such as Rustington, East Preston, Angmering, Ferring, Felpham, Pagham, Barnham, Eastergate, Yapton and Ford, with the River Arun meeting the sea at Littlehampton. The council's issues document for the new plan says the northern half of the district lies inside the South Downs National Park, where the National Park Authority decides applications. Arun's plan covers the rest.

A delivery result of 84%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 puts Arun above the 75% line but below 85%, which means a 20% buffer on its land supply rather than an automatic finding of unmet need.
Short of housing land. The council's 2023/24 monitoring report calculated a supply of 3.41 years, against the five national policy expects.
A plan from 2018. The Arun Local Plan 2011 to 2031 was adopted in July 2018. As the plan has passed its fifth birthday, the council now tests supply against the national standard method, not the plan's figure.
Good land, and a lot of it. The council describes most of the district's farmland as Grade 1 or 2, supporting large food and flower growers on the coastal plain.
Six railway stations, with Arun Valley Line trains running to London Victoria via Gatwick.

A plan past its review date, a housing figure that has risen since it was written and a supply that has not kept pace: together they keep the door open to well placed land beyond the built-up area boundaries.

Arun in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
84%
Below 85%: a 20% buffer is added to its five-year housing land supply.
Homes built against homes needed
3,361
of 4,007 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
July 2018
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

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.

Why the Land Supply Matters More Than the Score

National policy since August 2026 treats any council scoring below 75% in the Housing Delivery Test as having evidenced unmet housing need, opening the unmet need route in policy S5 to land beyond a settlement's edge. Arun's monitoring report records 70% in the 2023 measurement, so it was once in that group. At 84% it is not, and the need has to be shown another way.

The council's own supply figure does that. The framework counts a lack of five years' deliverable housing land as evidence that need is going unmet, and the score still counts: below 85%, a 20% buffer is added to the requirement, making a shortfall harder to close.

How a Site Outside a Settlement Is Weighed

The need. We start from the council's latest published supply position and the buffer that applies at 84%.
The relationship to the settlement. The land has to be physically well related to a town or to a village such as Yapton, Barnham or Angmering, reading as part of the place rather than as an outpost in open fields.
The gaps. Arun's adopted plan protects gaps between settlements, and that policy often decides whether a field reads as a sensible extension or as two villages starting to merge.
The capacity. Roads, drainage, schools and surgeries must be able to take the homes, now or through planned works. On this coast, drainage is often the hardest of these to show.
The balance. Where those tests are met, the proposal should be approved unless its benefits are substantially outweighed by the harm.

Inside the built-up areas, policy S4 favours homes unless the harm substantially outweighs the benefits, whatever the score, so yards and redundant plots in the towns start well placed.

Three Housing Figures, and Which One Counts

Three different numbers circulate for the homes Arun needs each year. They come from documents written at different times, and they stop looking contradictory once the dates are known.

Figure	Where it comes from	What it is used for
1,000 homes a year	The adopted Arun Local Plan, which plans for 20,000 homes between 2011 and 2031, a figure also recorded in the government's planning data.	The plan's own requirement. It no longer sets the supply target because the plan is more than five years old.
1,400 homes a year	The council's 2024 Direction of Travel consultation for a plan running from 2023 to 2041.	A starting point to test, which the council said was not a target.
1,476 homes a year	The 2023/24 monitoring report, using the standard method as revised in December 2024.	The figure the council measured its 3.41 year supply against, up from 1,342 under the previous method.

The standard method figure counts for decisions today. It is nearly half as much again as the plan's, which is why rising completions still leave supply short.

Permissions That Have Not Yet Been Built

Approvals are not the problem. The monitoring report records an average of around 7,000 homes permitted but not yet built over the last five years, 5,494 of them judged deliverable, and says applications on the strategic sites have not come forward as expected. Those allocations include at least 1,500 homes at Ford, permitted during 2023/24, at least 300 at Climping, and sites at Pagham, Bersted, Barnham, Eastergate and Westergate, Fontwell, Yapton and Angmering. The council's 2022 absorption study pointed to the long lead times large allocations need for enabling infrastructure. Smaller sites that can start sooner fill exactly that gap.

What Decides a Site on the Coastal Plain

Water in the Ground and at the Coast

The council explains that the spring line of the Downs meets impermeable clays in the Lidsey, Barnham and Ford catchments, giving a high water table and surface water flooding across much of the district, as well as coastal flooding. Drainage design is part of the case from the first sketch. How the flood zones and the sequential test work is covered in our guide to flood risk and development land.

Wastewater and Bathing Water

The same document records bathing waters affected by sewage discharges in extreme rainfall, when surface water gets into the sewers, and expects the new plan to make room for water recycling at Ford and a possible desalination plant on the tidal Arun. Showing a scheme will not add to that problem is one of the first things we test.

Birds, Farmland and the National Park

Pagham Harbour is a Special Protection Area and Ramsar site for visiting birds, and the Arun Valley to the north carries its own international designation. Land near either needs careful ecological work.
Grade 1 and 2 farmland carries weight in the planning balance. It does not rule a site out, but the loss of the best land has to be justified, and our page on farmland explains how we approach it.
The South Downs National Park covers the northern half of the district. Land in its setting, around Arundel and the villages under the Downs, is judged partly on views from the higher ground.

The council also wants the A27 and A29 improved to ease rail crossing bottlenecks and congestion at Arundel and Worthing, so traffic evidence matters on sites that use those roads.

The Land We Look for in Arun

Fields next to the built-up edges of Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Rustington or Angmering with a road frontage.
Land beside the inland villages, such as Barnham, Yapton, Walberton or Eastergate, that sits well against existing homes.
Sites mostly in Flood Zone 1, with room for drainage basins on the lower ground.
Former nurseries, glasshouse sites, yards and other previously used land next to a settlement.
Land within an easy walk of one of the district's stations.
Parcels next to a strategic allocation that could share its access or drainage.

Land deep in an open gap, or close to Pagham Harbour, is harder, and we will tell you so plainly in our review. We look at every site put to us, and how it works explains the steps from that first look to an application.

What We Are Watching in Arun

The Next Housing Delivery Test

A new result arrives every year. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026 and covers April 2022 to March 2025. Arun sits at or above 75% but below 85%. A modest fall would take it back below 75%, where it was in the 2023 measurement, and unmet need would again be treated as existing for the purposes of policy S5. A rise to 85% or more would remove the 20% buffer and lower the five-year requirement, making it easier for the council to show enough supply. The monitoring report recorded 983 net completions in 2023/24, up from 931. We have not seen a 2025/26 figure, so we make no forecast.

The Next Statement of Land Supply

Arun reports its supply in its annual monitoring report. The 3.41 years was worked out at 31 March 2024, and a 2024/25 report followed in late 2025. What counts for an application is the latest figure when it is decided, which we check before advising.

A New Plan Under the New System

The council's May 2025 timetable expected a draft plan with site allocations between April and September 2026 and adoption in summer 2028. That has been overtaken. The council's Local Plan Update page now says work continues on the evidence and that it must publish a notice of intention to start a new plan under the reformed system by 31 December 2026. Its timetable page adds that timetables will replace the old scheme, with further details to be confirmed in 2027. Its last call for sites closed on 7 August 2025, but it accepts sites all year, with findings to follow work on flood mapping and the gaps between settlements. How sites are weighed for a plan is set out in our call for sites guide.

Reorganisation in West Sussex

Proposals to replace Arun with a new unitary council were consulted on earlier in 2026, and the council said that once the geography was known a joint local plan for a larger area would need to be considered; its Planning Policy Committee discussed the implications on 3 September 2026. Four days later the government paused the West Sussex proposals while it reviews the reorganisation programme. The May 2027 local elections go ahead on today's boundaries, and Arun stays the planning authority for the district in the meantime.

What This Means for Timing

A new plan is several years away and, if reorganisation resumes, may be shaped by a council that does not yet exist. Well related land need not wait for it while supply is short. For larger sites, getting into the evidence being gathered now is the practical route. We can pursue both at once, at our cost.

Questions From Arun Landowners

Arun is now above 75%. Has the chance for my field gone?

No. The score no longer creates unmet need by itself, but the council's own monitoring found well under five years of housing land, and a shortfall is accepted as evidence of unmet need. The site still has to sit well against the settlement and deal with drainage and access.

My land is Grade 1 or 2. Does that stop it being developed?

Not automatically. The council describes most of the district's farmland as Grade 1 or 2, so almost any growth around the towns and villages of the plain involves good land. Its loss is weighed against the need for homes, which is why the rest of the case has to be strong.

The council did not publish a draft plan this year. Does that hold my land back?

It delays the plan route, not an application under national policy. Land can be put forward for the new plan while an application is considered on its merits.

Parts of my field are wet in winter. Is it worth asking?

Often, yes. A high water table is common on the plain, and many schemes keep homes on the drier ground and use the wetter land for drainage and open space. We check flood maps and levels first.

Will reorganisation change who decides an application?

For now Arun decides applications outside the National Park. Until a new plan is adopted, the current plan and national policy are what applications are judged against.

Tell Us About Your Land in Arun

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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.