West Sussex council area

Selling Land in Crawley

Crawley has the lowest housing delivery result in West Sussex and a local plan, adopted in October 2024, that meets well under half of the town's own need. The inspectors who examined it described a small borough made up of the town, Gatwick Airport and the open land between them, so the opportunities lie mostly inside the town, while much of its growth is planned just over the boundary.

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Crawley at a Glance

The adopted Local Plan records that Crawley was designated a New Town in 1947, taking in the older settlements of Crawley, Ifield and Three Bridges, and that the New Town was designed around a neighbourhood structure. It calls Forge Wood the last full neighbourhood that can be built within the borough boundary, "as there is simply no space left". Gatwick Airport lies inside the borough. The plan describes Manor Royal as one of the largest business parks in the South East, covering 240 hectares with more than 600 businesses and over 30,000 jobs, and places the town beside the M23 on the main railway line from London to Brighton.

36% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025. The council delivered 402 homes against a requirement of 1,112, the lowest result in the county.
A recent plan with a big gap. The Crawley Borough Local Plan 2023 to 2040 was adopted on 16 October 2024 with a requirement of 5,330 homes. The inspectors put need at 755 homes a year, 12,835 over the plan period, so the requirement covers about 42% of it.
About 7,505 homes of unmet need. The plan states that this shortfall "is fully acknowledged" and is being discussed with neighbouring authorities.
Little open land. In the inspectors' words, the plan area is the built-up area of Crawley, Gatwick Airport and the remaining open land between the town and the airport. The High Weald National Landscape lies to the south, beyond the M23 and the A264, rather than inside the town.

The inspectors found land supply within the borough boundary "highly constrained", which is why a recent plan and a very low delivery score sit side by side here.

Crawley in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
36%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Homes built against homes needed
402
of 1,112 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
October 2024
The plan currently used to decide applications.
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.

Building Inside a Tightly Drawn Town

Most sites that can take homes in Crawley are inside the built-up area, so the national policy that matters most is S4. Inside a settlement, development should be approved unless its harm substantially outweighs its benefits, and a delivery result of 36% leaves little doubt about the benefit of more homes.

The inspectors' report shows what the plan leans on. The town centre's key opportunity sites have a combined indicative capacity of about 1,500 homes, the continuing development at Forge Wood is described as a major new community, and Tinsley Lane, carried over from the 2015 plan, is allocated for at least 120 homes. The plan also roughly doubles the windfall allowance, from 55 to 100 homes a year, which is its estimate of the smaller sites that no plan can list in advance. Typical windfall plots include:

Town centre and edge-of-centre land. Older offices, shops and car parks, where the plan expects much of its new housing, often at higher density.
Garage blocks and backland. Rear courts and garage blocks can take a few homes where access and parking work.
Wide plots. A house on a generous plot that could be replaced by several homes, or have new homes added behind it.
Community and institutional buildings that have closed or are being consolidated.
Small commercial sites away from Manor Royal, where the business has moved on. Manor Royal itself is described by the inspectors as a major employment hub of sub-regional significance.

Our page on small sites and paddocks explains how we look at modest plots. Access is often the deciding issue on a backland site, and our guide to access and ransom strips sets out why.

Gatwick: Safeguarding, Noise and the Northern Runway

Three things about the airport matter for landowners:

Safeguarded land. The inspectors note that land south of the airport has been safeguarded for about twenty years to keep open the option of a second, wide-spaced runway, and Policy GAT2 of the plan carries that forward. East of the airport, 138 hectares were shown in Gatwick's master plan for car parking; the plan keeps 94 hectares of it safeguarded once the 44 hectares at Gatwick Green are taken out. Housing on safeguarded land is not realistic while that safeguarding remains.
Aircraft noise. The plan describes the land between the town and the airport as heavily constrained by noise and possibly needed for the airport's future development, and the inspectors accepted that noise near the airport limits where new homes can go. We check noise evidence first on any site in the north of the borough.
The northern runway. On 21 September 2025 the Secretary of State for Transport granted development consent for Gatwick to bring its northern runway into routine use alongside the main runway, and on 23 June 2026 the High Court dismissed both judicial review challenges to that decision. For a site near the airport, we read the noise evidence against the consented scheme rather than only against today's flights.

On the employment side, the plan allocates a strategic employment location at Gatwick Green, on 44 hectares east of Balcombe Road that were previously safeguarded for the airport, mainly for warehousing and distribution. Land in that corner is not a housing prospect.

Where Crawley's Homes Are Being Planned Next Door

Because Crawley cannot meet its own need, much of it is being planned in the two districts that surround the town. The Housing Delivery Test applies council by council, so land just over the boundary is judged under that council's result and plan, not Crawley's.

Neighbour	What is planned near Crawley
Horsham District	The main modifications to the Horsham plan add 3,757 homes, which they describe as half of Crawley's unmet need. Land West of Ifield is an existing allocation that the modifications leave in place.
Mid Sussex District	The submission Mid Sussex District Plan allocates Land at Crabbet Park, immediately east of Crawley's boundary, for about 2,000 homes, around 1,950 of them by 2040.

Why Half of 7,505 Comes Out at 3,757

Half of Crawley's 7,505 is 3,752 or 3,753, not the 3,757 in the Horsham modifications. The modifications do not explain the gap, and the likely reason is that Horsham worked from a slightly different version of Crawley's figure. It is five homes across a whole district and changes nothing for a landowner.

Crawley Borough Council has pressed for these schemes to reflect the town's needs. In February 2026 it said any development at Crabbet Park would in reality be an extension of Crawley. In a statement of common ground signed in March 2026, the two councils record that Mid Sussex requires 30% affordable housing on all sites, that Crawley asked for at least 40% at Crabbet Park and a half share of nominations, and that Mid Sussex agreed to test whether a higher share is viable and is open to discussing nomination rights. Growth here crosses council lines. See our West Sussex page and our Horsham District page for the wider picture.

Water, Rivers and the High Weald Edge

Crawley lies in the Sussex North water supply zone, so from Natural England's position statement of September 2021 new homes here had to be water neutral. Natural England withdrew it on 31 October 2025, after Southern Water and the Environment Agency agreed an abstraction licence cap that protects the Arun Valley habitats. The council says its standard has reverted to 110 litres per person per day under Policy SDC4 of the Local Plan, kept because the area is classed as seriously water stressed.

The council's 2023 flood risk assessment covers Crawley and the upper Mole catchment together. It names the River Mole and its tributary the Gatwick Stream as the main rivers, with Ifield Brook, Crawter's Brook, Tilgate Brook and Stanford Brook among the smaller watercourses, and it records notable floods in 1968, 2000 and 2012, the last bringing widespread property flooding in Maidenbower, Furnace Green and Ifield Green. Surface water can matter as much as the rivers, so drainage is checked early. How councils steer homes away from the higher flood zones is covered in our guide to building on land with flood risk.

To the south, beyond the M23 and the A264, lies the High Weald National Landscape, which the plan protects under Policy CL9. Sites on that edge of the town are judged partly on how they sit in views from the protected landscape.

What We Look for in Crawley

Yards, depots, garages and workshops inside the town, especially where the business is relocating.
Older commercial or community buildings with land around them, in or near the town centre.
Deep rear gardens or land behind a row of houses that could be reached by a new drive.
Land within walking distance of one of the town's railway stations.
Sites outside the airport safeguarding area and the worst of the aircraft noise.
Adjoining plots whose owners would consider putting them forward together.

We fund the surveys and reports, including noise, drainage and design, and if permission is refused you keep your property and owe us nothing.

Questions About Land in Crawley

Crawley adopted a plan in 2024. Why does the low delivery result still matter?

Because the plan itself admits it cannot meet the town's need, and the 36% result confirms that homes are not being built fast enough. Together they give suitable sites inside the town strong support under national policy, even where they are not allocated.

Is my land near Gatwick worth looking at?

It depends on exactly where it is. Land inside the safeguarded area is unlikely to be suitable for housing, and aircraft noise rules out some other areas. Elsewhere in the north of the town, a site can still work. We check both early.

I own land just outside Crawley in Horsham or Mid Sussex. Which council decides?

The council whose area your land is in. Crawley's unmet need is still relevant, because both neighbours are planning for part of it, but the rules and the delivery result that apply are those of your own district.

Does water neutrality still affect building in Crawley?

No. The requirement was withdrawn on 31 October 2025. New homes still have to meet the 110 litres per person per day standard, which is dealt with in the design.

My site is small. Is it still worth a review?

Yes. With so little open land left in the borough, a plot big enough for a handful of homes is exactly the kind of site Crawley relies on, and our review of it is just as thorough as for a field.

Tell Us About Your Land in Crawley

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Sources

We update this page when new Housing Delivery Test results or local plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.