Selling Land in Swindon

The supply statement shows why a well placed site of modest size matters here. Of the 6,146 homes it counts, 4,272 come from the large strategic allocations and only 237 from windfall, so the figure rests heavily on a few big sites, and land that can deliver sooner counts for more. We look for:

• 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, and farm or office buildings that could convert under prior approval, a route that gives the council 469 homes in its five-year count.
• Land next to or between the draft plan's growth areas, such as East Wroughton, Kingsdown or North Tadpole, 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 so is land far from buses and shops: the Moorleaze Farm scheme, on previously developed land, failed partly because reaching its nearest bus stops meant crossing the busy Commonhead roundabout and the A419 slip roads. We will say plainly after our review if your land faces the same problem.

• 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.

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, to be weighed rather than assumed. Swindon's latest published figure sits below that line: the July 2025 statement needs 6,276 homes over the five years, including the buffer, and counts 6,146. 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, should be approved unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

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.

Inspectors have accepted the shortfall since. At Ferndale Road in August 2025, one inspector found supply below the requirement "by a modest degree", and at Moorleaze Farm, Wanborough in November 2025, another recorded that the council could not show five years. Both appeals were still dismissed on the harm each scheme caused: a shortfall weighs heavily but does not decide a case.

For an owner selling land on the edge of Swindon or one of its villages, those two decisions give the realistic picture: the shortfall gives a scheme real weight, and its design, access and setting decide the outcome.

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%.

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.

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.

Four things will move in the year ahead.

1. 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 says 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.
2. A new supply statement. The last statement was published on 24 July 2025 with a base date of 1 April 2025. The evidence list for the final draft plan names a statement for 2026 to 2031, marked as available shortly when we checked. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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. No arrangement for Swindon has been confirmed.

For a landowner, the window is the weeks before submission: we can prepare representations for you before 5 November 2026 and, where the case is strong, an application in parallel, all at our cost.