West Sussex council area

Selling Land in Chichester

Chichester adopted a new Local Plan in August 2025 and builds well above its target, yet since 1 July 2026 it has counted less than five years of housing land. For landowners on the coastal plain between the harbour and the Downs, that opens a route that a new plan would not normally leave open.

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Chichester, Its Harbour and the East-West Corridor

Chichester District Council covers almost 800 square kilometres, from Selsey and the Witterings on the coast to inland villages such as Loxwood, and its adopted plan puts the population at about 124,100. Over two-thirds of the district lies within the South Downs National Park, which has its own planning authority for both decisions and plan-making. The district council's own plan covers the rest, which it divides into three parts:

The East-West Corridor, from Southbourne in the west through Chichester city to Tangmere in the east, which the plan says has the best transport connections, with the A27 and the railway running through it.
The Manhood Peninsula, rich in coastal landscapes, where most land carries environmental designations and the larger coastal settlements rely on limited roads north to the city.
The North of the Plan Area, the north east of the district plus Hammer and Camelsdale, primarily rural, with dispersed settlements, some relatively isolated and served by narrow lanes with limited public transport.

The district delivered 2,193 homes against 1,770 needed in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 124%. The Chichester Local Plan 2021 to 2039 was adopted in August 2025. On paper, that is a council with little pressure on it. The land supply tells a different story.

Chichester 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
124%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
4.52 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the adopted Local Plan requirement of 575 homes a year, plus the 20% buffer required from 1 July 2026. Stated by Chichester District Council, for the plan area outside the South Downs National Park, recalculating its 1 April 2025 statement from 1 July 2026.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
2,193
of 1,770 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
August 2025
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
Updated
New Local Plan 2045 started: scoping consultation 7 August to 25 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.

Short of Five Years Since 1 July 2026

The council's statement at 1 April 2025 found just over five years, measured against the adopted plan's 575 homes a year with a 5% buffer. From 1 July 2026 national policy requires a 20% buffer for decisions where a plan examined under an older framework provides 80% or less of the current standard method figure. The council applied it, and its housing land supply page now gives 4.52 years. The calculation is worth setting out:

Source: Chichester District Council five-year housing land supply position statement at 1 April 2025, and its July 2026 update. The 3,450 figure is our arithmetic from the council's own numbers and matches its result.
Part of the calculation	With a 5% buffer	With a 20% buffer
Requirement, 575 homes a year for five years	2,875	2,875
Requirement including buffer	3,019	3,450
Deliverable supply counted	3,118	3,118
Result	Just over five years	4.52 years

On those figures the district is about 330 homes short. Two details in the supply stand out. It includes 602 homes built above the requirement in earlier years, and it counts no homes under the heading of Local Plan allocations; the rest is sites with permission and windfall. So the position will turn on how fast permissions come through on the plan's larger sites.

What a Shortfall Does Here

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework treats a shortfall in the five-year figure as evidence that housing need is going unmet. It does not approve anything on its own: a site must be well related to the settlement beside it, and the roads, schools and drainage must be able to take the homes. Where those tests are met, homes beyond a settlement boundary should be approved unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits. In Chichester that makes the east-west corridor the natural place to look, and it is why a field that would have waited for the next plan a year ago may be worth an application now. The framework's wider changes are explained in our guide to the new NPPF.

Tangmere, Southbourne and the West of the City

Beyond the city itself, the adopted plan focuses development on two settlement hubs within the corridor: Tangmere, a settlement of some 4,000 people east of the city, and Southbourne, with a population of around 4,967, to the west. Land West of Chichester is to provide 1,600 homes in total, 850 of them in a second phase.

The Southbourne Plan

At Southbourne the plan sets a broad location for 1,050 homes under policy A13, with local employment, education and community facilities, rather than drawing the site. Once homes already permitted are taken off, a separate Southbourne Allocation plan has to find land for about 800 more. The council held the final consultation on that plan from 5 June to 17 July 2026 and is now working through the responses before submitting it for examination. Its Local Development Scheme, approved in May 2026, looks to submission in autumn 2026, hearings in winter or spring 2027 and adoption in summer 2027. For land around Southbourne, that plan, not the 2045 plan, is the one that matters most.

Windfall and the Next Count

In March 2026 Lambert Smith Hampton, acting as the council's critical friend on the supply, found that allowances of 45 homes a year on minor sites and 83 on major sites were justified, against the 60 a year in the adopted plan's trajectory. A higher windfall allowance in a future statement would add to supply without any new permission being granted. We make no forecast of the result, but it is one reason the shortfall may not last, and a reason to move while it does.

The a27, Apuldram and the Harbour

The Bypass

The A27 runs east to west across the plan area, and the plan deals with its congestion through a monitor and manage process. Under policy T1, the council's transport group page says all new housing in the south of the plan area must contribute to improvements that reduce congestion or improve safety on the bypass. National Highways sits on the group that oversees it. For a landowner, that contribution is known about from the outset and allowed for in our appraisal.

Wastewater and Nutrients

Chichester Harbour is protected under the Habitats Regulations, and the council records that more than 3,000 hectares of its intertidal area is now classed as unfavourable and declining. Following Natural England's assessment in 2019/20, it grants permission only where it can be certain that nutrient levels will not increase. The council's page names three wastewater treatment works, at Apuldram, Bosham and Thornham. The council describes Apuldram as at environmental capacity, and policy NE17 limits new homes connecting to it, with any scheme of 10 or more homes having to show no net increase in flow. Which works a site drains to is one of the first things we establish, as it can decide whether and when a scheme is viable.

The National Landscape

Chichester Harbour National Landscape, still called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the plan's policy NE14, reaches along the harbour shore, and major development inside it has to clear the strictest test in national policy. Fields on the harbour side of the villages, and those in its setting, need a landscape case built early.

Water in the North, Now Lifted

From 2021 homes in the Sussex North supply zone, which covers the north of the district, had to be water neutral. Natural England withdrew that requirement on 31 October 2025, and the council now applies the water efficiency standard of 110 litres per person per day under policy NE18. Owners in the north who were turned away between 2021 and 2025 on water grounds alone are in a different position today.

The Land We Look for in Chichester

Fields next to Chichester city, Tangmere, Southbourne and the corridor villages, with road access and room for drainage.
Plots and backland within settlement boundaries, judged under policy S4, which favours approval.
Land on the Manhood Peninsula where flood risk, drainage and the harbour setting allow.
Sites in the north of the district that stalled on water neutrality.
Larger holdings that could suit the 2045 plan.

We start with the questions that decide Chichester sites: which treatment works the land drains to, the A27 contribution, the landscape to the harbour or the Downs, and the fit with the settlement. We pay for all of the planning work, from the first survey to the decision, under an option whose price is settled when we sign, pitched above what the land is worth now. You carry on farming or using the land, and if permission is not granted it stays yours with nothing to pay. Our farmland page explains how we look at larger fields, and the West Sussex overview compares Chichester with its neighbours.

A New Supply Statement and a Second Plan

The 1 April 2026 Statement

The council said in July that its next position statement, at 1 April 2026, was under way and due in late summer or early autumn; at the end of September it had not yet appeared. With the national rule now in force, it would be expected to carry the 20% buffer from the start. If it shows five years or more, the S5 route narrows again and most edge-of-settlement land returns to the plan. If it stays short, the current opening continues. Either way, an application already in with its evidence is judged on the position when it is decided, which is why we do not advise waiting to see.

The Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 124%, none of its consequences applies to Chichester, and a strong result does nothing to offset the supply position: the two are separate tests.

The Local Plan 2045

Although the 2039 plan is little more than a year old, the council has started a new one, and its first consultation, on the scope of the plan, closed on 25 September 2026. The timetable shows what follows:

From the council's Chichester Local Plan 2045 timetable. The council notes that dates after a unitary council's vesting day may change.
Stage	Council's date
Scoping consultation	7 August to 25 September 2026
Gateway 1 self-assessment	By 31 October 2026
Consultation on proposed plan content	4 June to 16 July 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	28 January to 31 March 2028
Submission for examination	By 31 October 2028
Adoption	By 30 April 2029

The council's call for sites for its new land availability assessment closed on 15 May 2026. Land submitted then will be tested for the 2045 plan; land that missed it can still come forward through an application while supply is short, or through the plan's consultations. Our call for sites guide sets out the stages ahead.

Reorganisation, Paused

The timetable's caveat reflects plans to replace West Sussex's councils with new unitary authorities. On 7 September 2026 the government paused the West Sussex proposals as part of a wider review, and the May 2027 elections will be held on existing boundaries. Chichester District Council remains the planning authority outside the National Park.

What This Means for Timing

Well related land in the corridor is best considered now, while the supply is below five years.
Land around Southbourne follows its own allocation plan, which the council expects to adopt in 2027.
Land in the north can be looked at again now water neutrality has gone.

Questions About Land in Chichester

The council has a new plan and builds more than it needs to. Why would it approve homes on my field?

Because its supply fell below five years when the buffer rose to 20% on 1 July 2026, and national policy treats that as evidence of unmet need. A field that sits well against a settlement and can be served can now be argued on its merits, not only through the plan.

My land drains to Apuldram. Is that a problem?

It can be. The council treats Apuldram as at capacity and its plan limits new connections, and every scheme draining to the harbour must also show it will not add to nutrient levels there. We check the drainage route before anything else, at our cost.

I missed the call for sites in May 2026. Have I missed my chance?

No. While the supply is short, well placed land can come forward through an application, and the 2045 plan has consultations in 2027 and 2028 where land can still be considered.

My land in the north of the district was ruled out in 2023 because of water. Should I look again?

Yes. Water neutrality was withdrawn on 31 October 2025, and new homes now have to meet the 110 litres per person per day standard instead. Other constraints may still apply, and our review covers them.

Does the A27 contribution make a small site in the south unviable?

Not usually. All new housing in the south of the plan area contributes towards improvements on the bypass, so it is a known item that we allow for from the start of our review.

Tell Us About Your Land in Chichester

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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.