Wiltshire council area

Selling Land in Swindon

Swindon's final draft Local Plan, for 24,060 homes to 2043, opened for comment on 24 September 2026, while the plan still in force dates from March 2015. The council's most recent land supply statement also falls just short of five years, and that combination gives well placed land around the town and its villages more than one way forward.

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The Borough in Brief

Swindon Borough Council runs every local service for the town of Swindon and the countryside around it, including the town of Highworth, Wroughton below the downs, and villages such as Chiseldon, Wanborough, South Marston, Broad Blunsdon and Castle Eaton. It is a separate council from Wiltshire Council, with its own plan, its own housing figures and its own delivery result. The adopted plan describes the town as sitting at the heart of the M4 corridor, and the Great Western main line runs through it.

Delivery at 87%. That is Swindon's result in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, which covers April 2022 to March 2025. It sits between 85% and 95%, so the council must publish an action plan, but no extra buffer is added to its land supply.
A plan that has run its course. The Swindon Borough Local Plan 2026 was adopted in March 2015 and planned for at least 22,000 homes between 2011 and 2026.
Just short of five years. The council's statement published in July 2025 puts its deliverable supply at 4.90 years from 1 April 2025.
A final draft out now. Comments on the Swindon Local Plan 2043 are open from 24 September to 11.59pm on 5 November 2026.

Swindon in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
87%
Below 95%: the council must publish an action plan to improve delivery.
Homes built against homes needed
2,620
of 3,028 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
March 2015
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Final draft Swindon Local Plan 2043 open for comment from 24 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.

Why 4.90 Years Matters More Than It Sounds

A council above 75% in the Housing Delivery Test is not treated automatically as having unmet housing need. Under policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, though, a shortfall in the five-year supply of deliverable sites also counts as evidence of unmet need. Swindon's latest published figure sits just below that line. Where it applies, land beyond a settlement boundary that relates well to the town or village beside it, and that roads, schools and drains can serve, ought to gain permission unless its harm clearly and substantially exceeds what it offers.

That matters because the adopted plan is strict about the countryside. Its policy SD2 allows homes outside settlement boundaries only where a neighbourhood plan identifies them or under a short list of exceptions, such as homes for rural workers. Swindon protects its countryside through settlement boundaries and gaps between communities rather than Green Belt, so the S5 route is not closed off by Green Belt anywhere the draft plan looks for growth.

Two Delivery Results, One Conclusion

The July 2025 statement refers to a Housing Delivery Test result of 97%, the figure published in December 2024 for April 2020 to March 2023. The page panel shows 87%, the Housing Delivery Test 2025 result published on 17 August 2026. Neither is wrong: they measure different three-year periods. Both sit above 85%, which is why the statement adds the standard 5% buffer rather than 20%. On either result, the question that decides many edge-of-settlement cases in Swindon is the supply figure, not the delivery score.

Why the Yearly Figure Keeps Changing

Readers will meet three annual targets. The supply statement uses 1,195 homes a year, the September 2025 draft plan used 1,205, and the final draft uses 1,203, or 24,060 over twenty years. All three come from the government's standard method, which is recalculated as new household and affordability data are released. The differences are small and change nothing for a landowner.

Where the Draft Plan Puts the Homes

The draft consulted on in September and October 2025 carried forward three sites from the 2015 plan and added five new clusters. The figures below are taken from that draft. The final version now out for comment may adjust them, and the inspector will test whichever numbers are submitted.

Location	Homes in the 2025 draft	What it is
New Eastern Villages	Up to 10,000	A group of new villages east of the A419, allocated in the 2015 plan and enlarged in the draft.
Central Area	4,347	Denser, mixed use development in and around the town centre.
Kingsdown	1,847	Carried forward from the 2015 plan, on land east of the A419.
Wichelstowe	At least 1,600 more	An existing extension of the town, carried forward with more homes.
East Wroughton	1,031	A new cluster on the edge of Wroughton.
Marlowe Avenue	976	Urban regeneration.
Pipers Way	844	Urban regeneration.
North Tadpole	513	A new cluster.

Most of the growth is therefore on land already allocated, or on sites inside the town. The Vale of White Horse council, whose district adjoins the borough, reads the New Eastern Villages change as around 2,000 additional homes, and it has raised flood risk in the River Cole catchment that crosses the two areas.

If Your Land Is Not in the Draft

Land left out of a final draft is not finished. Representations can argue for an omitted site before the inspector, and an application can run in parallel where the supply shortfall and the site's location support it. Our guide to calls for sites and local plans sets out what a council weighs at each stage, and we prepare and pay for the evidence either route needs.

Villages, the Downs and the Gaps Between Them

The 2025 draft sets out a settlement hierarchy below the town. Highworth and Wroughton are rural service centres, with Great Stall East and Lotmead, and South Marston with Rowborough, emerging as new ones. Broad Blunsdon, Chiseldon, Foxbridge, Redlands and Wanborough are larger villages. Hamlets such as Castle Eaton, Hannington, Liddington, Bishopstone and Hinton Parva sit at the bottom, where growth is expected to be limited.

Three things shape the rural borough more than most:

The North Wessex Downs National Landscape. The council's sustainability appraisal places it across the south of the borough. Wroughton and Wanborough sit at its foot, while Chiseldon stands on higher ground inside it. Major development within it needs exceptional circumstances, and land near its edge is judged on how it looks from the higher ground.
Non-coalescence. The draft plan protects the separate identity of places that growth is pushing together. Its example is South Marston, where land between the expanded village and the New Eastern Villages is to stay as countryside.
Neighbourhood plans. The council's timetable lists neighbourhood plans made between July 2016 and November 2025. Because policy SD2 lets a neighbourhood plan identify sites outside settlement boundaries, a parish reviewing its plan can be a real route for a village field.

In practice, a paddock behind existing homes in Highworth or Broad Blunsdon is a very different case from a field on the high ground around Chiseldon, and we tell owners early which kind of case they have. Our page on farmland we buy sets out what makes a field suitable.

Rivers, Roads and What Schemes Pay For

Local factor	What it can mean for your land
The River Ray to the west and the River Cole	The council's appraisal identifies both as constraints, with the Thames flood plain defining the north. Most sites near them can keep homes on the drier ground, which our flood risk guide explains.
The A419 and Cricklade North Meadow	The appraisal notes air pollution from the A419 near this protected meadow just over the boundary in Wiltshire. It can bring extra assessment for schemes that add traffic on that road.
The M4 and the national road network	The council says a transport assessment is being prepared with National Highways for the final plan. Junction capacity can shape where homes go and what a scheme contributes.
Affordable homes	The draft seeks 30% affordable housing on major schemes, 78% of it for social rent.

Affordable housing, road and school contributions and biodiversity net gain all come out of what a scheme can support. The way those payments are set is covered in our guide to Section 106 and CIL. When we agree a price with you, these costs are already allowed for, and none of the reports or fees fall on you.

Land That Fits Our Approach in Swindon

Fields that adjoin the built edge of Swindon, Highworth or Wroughton, with a road frontage or a route to one.
Land beside the larger villages, such as Broad Blunsdon, Wanborough or South Marston, where the scale suits the village.
Sites mostly in Flood Zone 1, away from the Ray, Cole and Thames flood plains.
Former farmyards, workshops and commercial land, inside or outside the settlements.
Land next to or between the draft plan's growth areas that could share their new roads and services.
Larger holdings that could come forward through the plan examination or a later review.

Land inside the North Wessex Downs, or in a gap the plan keeps open between two communities, is harder, and we will say so plainly after our review.

The Next Twelve Months in Swindon

Several things will move in the year ahead, and each one changes how land here is best put forward.

The plan goes to examination. The council's Local Development Scheme of August 2026 shows submission to the government in December 2026, hearings in spring or summer 2027, the inspector's report in autumn or winter 2027, and adoption in early 2028. The council notes that the examination dates depend on the inspector. The consultation page asks for comments against the 2024 version of the national framework, which signals the version the plan will be tested against.
A new supply statement. The last statement was published on 24 July 2025 with a base date of 1 April 2025, and when we checked, no 2026 statement had yet been posted. If the next one shows five years or more, the supply argument under S5 weakens. If it stays below five years, the case for well placed land outside settlement boundaries stays open.
The next Housing Delivery Test. A fresh edition appears every year; the Housing Delivery Test 2025 was released on 17 August 2026. At 87%, a fall below 85% would bring a 20% buffer into the supply calculation, which would make five years harder for the council to show. A fall below 75% would treat unmet need as existing whatever the supply. A rise to 95% or more would end the need for an action plan.
Devolution. Swindon is already a unitary council, so the reorganisation of two-tier counties does not reshape it. According to Wiltshire Council, Swindon is not part of the proposed Wessex mayoral authority, and in November 2025 it set out an interest in joining the Thames Valley area instead. Any strategic authority that follows would take on strategic planning, but no arrangement for Swindon has been confirmed.

For a landowner, the practical point is timing. Until the plan is submitted, a site can still be argued for in the plan and, where the supply shortfall applies, through an application. Once the plan is submitted and then adopted, it carries more weight and should restore a five-year supply, and the argument shifts to the next review. We can prepare representations for you before 5 November 2026 and, where the case is strong, an application in parallel, all at our cost.

Questions From Swindon Landowners

Swindon is above 75%. Can my field still go in for planning outside the settlement boundary?

Possibly. The delivery result alone does not open the unmet need route in S5, but the council's latest statement shows less than five years of supply, and a supply shortfall is also evidence of unmet need. The land still has to sit well against the town or a village and be served by roads, schools and drainage.

Is my land near Wroughton or Chiseldon in the National Landscape?

Chiseldon sits on high ground inside the North Wessex Downs, and Wroughton and Wanborough lie at its foot, so fields nearby can fall on either side of the boundary. We check the exact line and how your land is seen from the downs before giving a view.

My land borders the New Eastern Villages. Does that help?

It can. Land next to a large planned extension may share its roads, schools and drainage. It can also end up as the open space or gap the plan keeps around a village such as South Marston, so the draft policies for that area are the first thing we read.

What happens to my land when the new plan is adopted in 2028?

The council's timetable points to early 2028. An adopted plan resets the housing sites and should restore a five-year supply, so unallocated land would then usually need to wait for a review or come forward through a neighbourhood plan. That is why the months before submission matter.

What does it cost me to find out?

Nothing. Our first review is free, and if we agree terms we pay for every report, the application and any appeal. You keep farming or using the land until the purchase completes. Our how it works page sets out the whole process.

Tell Us About Your Land in Swindon

It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly. We reply within 2 working days, in confidence.

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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.