Selling Land in Worthing

• Commercial, industrial or storage premises in the town that are reaching the end of their working life.
• Garage blocks, yards and backland behind existing streets with a workable access.
• Large houses on generous plots in Goring, Offington, Salvington or Findon Valley.
• Former community, office or institutional buildings, including those being vacated by public bodies.
• Land within walking distance of one of the five stations.
• Neighbouring plots whose owners are willing to put them forward together.

Urban sites bring their own questions, from neighbours' light and privacy to shared drives and any tenants in place. We pay for the surveys, drawings and reports that answer them, you carry on using the property until completion, and should permission be refused, the property stays yours with nothing owed. Each stage, from first review to completion, is described on how it works.

• An outright sale. You sell the land as it stands today, privately or at auction. The price is what a buyer will pay for it without planning permission, and the buyer takes on everything that follows.
• A conditional contract. You agree a sale now, but it only completes if planning permission is granted. Until then you keep the land, and the agreement sets out who applies for permission and who pays.
• An option agreement, the route we use. We agree your price at the start, in writing, set above what your land is worth today. We then pay for and run all of the planning work, at our own cost and risk. If permission is granted, we complete the purchase and you receive the agreed price on completion. If it is not, you keep your land and owe nothing.

For land that needs planning permission before it is worth more, an option means you know your price before any work starts and never spend a penny on planning. The ways to sell land for development, compared sets out each route in full.

The plan sets out Worthing's objectively assessed need as 14,160 homes between 2020 and 2036, or 885 a year. It then plans for a minimum of 3,672, an average of 230 a year, and says openly that there is no expectation that all needs, particularly for housing, can be met within the borough. That is about a quarter of the need.

The inspector who examined it accepted the gap. The report of October 2022 found the requirement a reasonable and realistic assessment of the limited capacity in the borough, and concluded that the council had done everything it could realistically do to identify sites. The inspector did take one allocation out: land at Titnore Lane, where the report found a significant risk of harm to the woodland and its wildlife.

Where the 3,672 Come From

The adopted plan makes 14 allocations, five of them urban extensions on the edge of the built-up area, alongside the regeneration of town centre and employment sites and a steady flow of windfall schemes. Before this plan, the borough's average of 306 homes a year since 2006 had included a large greenfield site at West Durrington. The plan identifies nothing on that scale now.

For a landowner, the shape of that gap matters more than its size. A council that has accepted it cannot meet its need is unlikely to turn away a suitable site inside the town for want of demand, and national policy S4 already leans towards approving homes within settlements unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

The monitoring report finds 6.9 years of deliverable housing land at 1 April 2025. Because the plan is less than five years old, the council measures it against the plan's own figure rather than the government's standard method:

The council has used the larger 20% buffer even though the same report records a pass in the delivery test. Since 1 July 2026 a plan examined under an earlier framework that meets 80% or less of today's standard method figure must carry a 20% buffer when applications are decided. Worthing already uses that buffer, so the change leaves its result where it was. A year earlier, its statement at 1 April 2024, published ahead of the Chatsmore Farm inquiry, found 6.3 years on the same basis, with the buffer then tied to a failed delivery test.

What a Comfortable Supply Means for a Field

Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework supports homes outside a settlement where unmet need is evidenced, most often by a delivery result below 75% or a supply below five years, and where the land is well related to the settlement and its roads, schools and drainage. Neither measure points that way in Worthing today, and the plan's own account is that the town cannot grow beyond its built-up boundary without merging with its neighbours. The honest position is that edge-of-town land here rarely has a case now, and depends on the next plan.

The plan's age matters most. Worthing's plan was adopted on 28 March 2023. Once strategic policies pass five years old, national policy generally measures land supply against the government's standard method instead of the plan's own figure. For Worthing that means leaving behind a requirement of 230 homes a year in a town whose own plan records need of 885. What the result will be, we do not predict, but it is the single most important date on the horizon for land in the borough, and any site that would benefit should have its evidence ready by then.

A Review Due, but Not Yet Started

The plan commits to a review within five years of adoption. The council's Local Development Scheme for 2025 to 2028 expects that review to begin in 2028, and the monitoring report adds that no new planning documents are expected before then, with the timetable depending on the outcome of reorganisation.

Reorganisation is paused. In May 2026 the government consulted on grouping Worthing with Adur and Arun in a coastal unitary council taking on its full role from April 2028. On 7 September 2026 it paused the West Sussex proposals while it reviews reorganisation across the country, and the elections due in May 2027 keep today's council boundaries. For now, Worthing Borough Council remains the planning authority for the borough outside the National Park.

Delivery is holding for now. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 appeared on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 142%, none of the consequences applies. Completions dipped to 196 in 2024/25 after 341 the year before, so delivery on the big town centre schemes will decide whether that margin holds.

Town Sites Now, Edge Land Ready for March 2028

• Sites inside the town fall under policy S4 and do not need to wait for any of these dates.
• Larger or edge-of-town land is best prepared now, so its evidence is ready for March 2028 and for the review.
• Not sure which applies? Our free review starts by answering that.