West Sussex council area

Selling Land in Mid Sussex

Mid Sussex is building what the government asks of it, with a delivery result of 104%, yet it accepts it is short of five years of housing land until its new District Plan is adopted, and that plan is being rewritten at examination to take several thousand more homes than the council first proposed. For landowners around Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, East Grinstead and the larger villages, the coming months decide which fields are in the plan and which wait for the one after.

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Three Towns, and Half the District in the High Weald

The adopted Mid Sussex plan names three main towns with a comprehensive range of jobs, shops and services, Burgess Hill, East Grinstead and Haywards Heath, and a second tier of larger villages: Copthorne, Crawley Down, Cuckfield, Hassocks and Keymer, Hurstpierpoint and Lindfield. Below those come smaller villages such as Balcombe, Handcross, Albourne and Sayers Common.

Landscape on two sides. The District Plan 2014 to 2031 records that nearly half the district is in the High Weald National Landscape (then called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and over a tenth is in the South Downs National Park.
Ashdown Forest nearby. The same plan identifies East Grinstead, Ashurst Wood, Ardingly, Horsted Keynes and Crawley Down as within 7km of the forest's protected heathland, where new homes contribute to alternative greenspace and to managing visitor pressure.
Building above target. The council completed 3,124 homes against a requirement of 3,008 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 104%.
An older strategic plan. The District Plan was adopted in March 2018 and is now 8 years old.

Mid Sussex 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
104%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.75 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the standard method of December 2024, 1,343 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Mid Sussex District Council, agreed with the appellant in the housing land supply statement of common ground for the Land East of Ansty appeal (June 2026); the council expects 5.69 years once its new District Plan is adopted.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
3,124
of 3,008 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
March 2018
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
District Plan review at examination: main modifications consultation closed 7 September 2026; hearings resume 3 November 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.

An Examination That Restarted and Raised the Target

The District Plan 2021 to 2039 was submitted for examination on 8 July 2024. In December 2025 the Planning Inspectorate appointed a new inspector, Jonathan Bore, whose hearings opened on 24 February 2026 and ran for three weeks.

The post-hearing letter found the plan's spatial strategy sound but its housing number too low. The submitted plan had used local need of 1,090 homes a year; updated inputs to the same method gave 999. On top of that, the inspector asked for a substantial allowance for neighbours' unmet need, principally Crawley's but with regard to the south coast too, and set a target range of 1,200 to 1,300 homes a year.

How the New Requirement Is Built

Source: Mid Sussex District Plan, schedule of main modifications (July 2026), policy DPH1.
Part of the requirement, 2021 to 2040	Homes
Mid Sussex's own local housing need	19,243
Contribution to Crawley's unmet need	3,753
Contribution to Brighton and Hove's unmet need	1,075
Total requirement	24,071

Across nineteen years the total works out at about 1,267 homes a year, in the middle of the inspector's range and well above the 876 a year the 2018 plan asked for until 2023/24. It is stepped, rising to 1,446 a year for the last eight years, so the heaviest years fall in the 2030s.

Where 4,063 Extra Homes Were Found

To meet the higher figure the council published a long list in May 2026 and then tested 35 additional sites together for their effect on roads, landscape and Ashdown Forest. Its in-combination testing concluded that all 35, totalling 4,063 homes, could go forward, with eight of the nine junctions where the effect was judged severe capable of mitigation. The schedule of main modifications now adds them to the plan. The larger ones are:

Selected sites from the July 2026 main modifications, subject to the November hearings.
Settlement	Largest new allocations
Burgess Hill	Land east and west of Malthouse Lane, 750 homes
Pease Pottage	West of Woodhurst Farm, 700; Pease Field, 196
Sayers Common	West House Farm, Henfield Road, 325, with two further sites of 75 each
Hassocks	West of Ockley Lane, 250
Albourne	East of London Road, 250
Hurstpierpoint	Northeast of the village, 150; north of Willow Way, 150; east of College Lane, 75
Crawley Down and Handcross	Rear of The Martins, 150; west of Truggers, 105
East Grinstead	Four sites of 20 to 100 homes, the largest at Queens Walk and London Road

These sit on top of the three strategic sites already in the submitted plan: land west of Burgess Hill and north of Hurstpierpoint, Crabbet Park at Copthorne, and land south of Reeds Lane at Sayers Common. The inspector wants the Sayers Common sites masterplanned together.

Late in an examination a council can only choose from land it already knows is deliverable. How land gets there, from a call for sites onwards, is covered in our local plans guide.

3.75 Years Today, and 5.69 Years Once the Plan Is Adopted

The adopted plan's strategic policies passed five years old in March 2023, so until the new plan is adopted supply is tested against the government's standard method. For the Ansty appeal the council signed a statement of common ground on land supply in June 2026. Measured at 1 April 2026 against 1,343 homes a year under the December 2024 method, plus a 5% buffer, it needs 7,051 homes over five years and counts 5,293 deliverable. That is 3.75 years, a shortfall of 1,758 homes, and both sides agree the council cannot show five years.

The council calls this a short-term problem that adoption will put right, and the appellants disagree. Its land supply note for the examination, published in July 2026 with the same base date, measures supply against the modified plan instead and assumes adoption in 2026/27:

Source: Mid Sussex District Council, H10 Housing Land Supply and Trajectory Update (July 2026).
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Requirement used	The modified plan's stepped figure: 999 homes a year to 2027/28, then 1,312 a year
Five years at those rates	5,934 homes
Shortfall since 2021	44 homes
Buffer	5%, or 299 homes
Five-year requirement	6,277 homes
Deliverable supply	7,138 homes
Result	5.69 years on adoption, a surplus of 861 homes

The same note records completions of 1,247 in 2023/24, then 837 and 889 in the two years since, so the step to 1,312 a year asks for more than the district has built in any year of this plan period.

The two results differ because the appeal figure asks for 1,343 homes every year while the plan asks for 999 in its first two years, and because the note counts expected building on sites the modified plan would allocate. One describes applications decided now, the other the position once the plan is in force.

What This Means for a Field Outside the Plan

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework supports homes on land well related to a settlement, where roads, schools and drainage can take them, if unmet need is evidenced. A supply short of five years is evidence of that need to be weighed, not an automatic finding. It lasts only until adoption, so for a field that sits properly against a town or larger village the months before then are when an application carries most weight; after it, the plan and its next review become the main route.

The High Weald Test, and a Recovered Appeal at Cuckfield

Inside a National Landscape, major development is refused except in exceptional circumstances. The test shaped the extra allocations. Of the nine new sites inside the High Weald, the council judged six not to be major development at all. The other three, west of Truggers at Handcross and the two Pease Pottage sites at Woodhurst Farm and Pease Field, it treated as major development for which an exceptional circumstances case can be made.

Land East of Ansty Way

Fairfax Acquisitions and the Norris family propose 1,450 homes between Ansty and Cuckfield, with a primary school, a special needs school and a health hub. According to local reporting, the planning committee refused it on 16 October 2025 against its officers' recommendation, the appeal inquiry ran from 9 to 26 June 2026, and the Secretary of State has recovered the decision. The appellants accept some effect on the setting of the High Weald. At the end of September 2026 the Planning Inspectorate's appeal record still showed the case as awaiting a decision. Its reasoning on the High Weald, on a plan nearing adoption and on the agreed shortfall will matter across the district.

The Land We Look for in Mid Sussex

Land on the edge of Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath or East Grinstead that is not already allocated.
Fields beside the larger villages, from Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint to Copthorne and Crawley Down.
Previously developed land, old nurseries and yards anywhere in the district.
Plots inside the towns and villages, where policy S4 favours new homes.
Land in the High Weald where a smaller, well contained scheme could avoid being major development.
Larger holdings that could suit the next plan, which will have to go further again.

Much of the land that could come forward here is farmed or grazed, and an option leaves that use in place: we agree a price at the start, above what the land is worth today, pay for all the planning, and complete the purchase once permission is secured. If it never is, the land stays yours and you owe nothing. Our page on farmland explains how this works alongside a farm business, and the West Sussex overview sets the district beside its neighbours.

Mid Sussex Between the November Hearings and Adoption

Resumed Hearings From 3 November 2026

The consultation on the main modifications ran from 27 July to 7 September 2026, and the council has sent the responses to the inspector. The examination page shows hearings resuming at 10am on 3 November 2026. The council's plan review page still points to adoption at the end of 2026. That would need the inspector's report to follow soon after the hearings.

A New Yardstick on Adoption

Once adopted, the plan's stepped requirement becomes the measure of supply for five years, and the council expects to show 5.69 years against it, which would end the shortfall agreed at Ansty. From 1 July 2026, planning decisions add a 20% buffer when a requirement adopted within the past five years, tested at examination under a pre-December 2024 framework, sits at 80% or less of the standard method. This plan is examined under the September 2023 framework, but its average of about 1,267 a year is around 94% of 1,343, so the note's 5% buffer would stand.

The Next Delivery Test

A new edition of the delivery test follows the Housing Delivery Test 2025 each year, and the lower completions since 2024 will count in it. Below 95% an action plan is needed, below 85% a 20% buffer applies, and below 75% unmet need is treated as evidenced under policy S5.

Reorganisation, Paused

Proposals to replace the West Sussex councils with new unitary authorities were paused on 7 September 2026, and May 2027 elections will use existing boundaries. For now the district council remains the body finishing its own plan.

What This Means for Timing

Land in the modifications goes before the inspector in November, and the detailed work behind an application can start now.
Land left out is worth looking at before adoption if it sits well against a town or larger village; otherwise it is best prepared for the next review.
Previously developed land and sites within the settlements do not depend on either, and can be looked at today.

Questions About Land in Mid Sussex

The council accepts it is short of five years. Can my field go in for planning now?

Possibly. Until the new plan is adopted, the shortfall is evidence of unmet need under policy S5, weighed with everything else, so a field that sits well against a town or larger village has an argument now that it may lose later.

My field is one of the new allocations. What happens now?

An allocation is a strong start, not a permission. The site still needs an application backed by transport, drainage, ecology and design work, and we take on that cost and risk.

I am in the High Weald near East Grinstead. Is my land ruled out?

Not automatically. The council itself has allocated sites inside the National Landscape, some of them judged not to be major development. Size, screening and how the land relates to the town decide it.

Does Crawley's housing shortfall help land near Copthorne or Pease Pottage?

It helps through the plan rather than through an application. The modified plan counts 3,753 homes towards Crawley's unmet need, and the new allocations include more than 900 homes at Pease Pottage alone.

Was my land held back by water neutrality?

Probably not. The council told the inspector that only a small area of the district lies in the Sussex North supply zone, that no sites were submitted there, and after Natural England withdrew its position on 31 October 2025 the main modifications delete the plan's water neutrality policy.

Tell Us About Your Land in Mid Sussex

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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.