Worcestershire council area

Selling Land in Redditch

Redditch was designated a new town in 1964, and it no longer has room inside its boundary for the homes it needs, so more than half of those in its 2017 plan were placed in Bromsgrove district. It clears the government's delivery test with 129%, yet its own statement shows only 3.11 years of housing land, and a new plan is being prepared for adoption in 2029.

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A New Town That Has Outgrown Its Boundary

Redditch Borough Council covers the town, with district centres such as Church Hill, Matchborough, Winyates and Woodrow and older former villages such as Headless Cross and Webheath, plus Astwood Bank and Feckenham in the rural south. About 87,000 people lived in the borough at the 2021 census. The council's Issues and Options paper describes a borough of 5,435 hectares split in two: an urban north covering half the land and holding 93% of the people, and a rural south with 7%, which mainly consists of Green Belt.

A planned town. Designated a new town on 10 April 1964, Redditch was built around district centres, and the paper credits its masterplan with low congestion and large amounts of open space.
Links to Birmingham. Redditch station is a southern terminus of the Cross-City line through Birmingham New Street, and the main roads in are the A441 from junction 2 of the M42, the A435 from junction 3 and the A448 from the M5.
A plan from 2017. The Borough of Redditch Local Plan No.4, covering 2011 to 2030, was adopted in January 2017 and is now 9 years old.
Delivery well above target. The borough built 590 homes against a requirement of 457 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 129%.
Short of land on the supply test. The council's own statement shows 3.11 years of deliverable housing land at 1 April 2025.

Those last two lines only look contradictory.

Redditch 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
129%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.11 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the standard method, 497 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Redditch Borough Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
590
of 457 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
January 2017
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
New plan to 2044 started: scoping held July to August 2026, Gateway 1 October 2026, adoption aimed for April 2029
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.

A Strong Delivery Result and a Short Supply

The Housing Delivery Test and the five-year supply test use different yardsticks. The government's test measured Redditch against a requirement of 457 homes across the three years from April 2022 to March 2025. The supply statement, by contrast, uses the standard method's figure of 497 homes for every single year, because the 2017 plan turned five on 30 January 2022 and its own requirement no longer applies to the test. The council's April 2025 supply report sets the calculation out:

Source: Redditch Borough Council, Housing Land Supply in Redditch Borough 2011 to 2025, base date 1 April 2025.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement	497 homes, the standard method figure based on 2024 housing stock and affordability
Buffer	5%
Five-year requirement with buffer	2,609 homes
Homes with planning permission, not yet built	1,599
Small windfall sites	22 (11 a year, counted for two years)
Deliverable supply	1,621 homes
Shortfall	988 homes
Result	3.11 years

The council has, in its own words, repeatedly disputed how the government's delivery test treats housing need that is met across the boundary, and the 2023 measurement put Redditch at 285%. Whatever the rights of that argument, it is the supply position, published by the council itself, that bites on applications.

What a Shortfall Does, and Does Not, Do Here

A supply short of five years is the usual evidence of unmet need for housing on grey belt land, so on the council's own figures that part of the grey belt test is likely to be met in Redditch today. The land must still qualify as grey belt and sit in a sustainable place, and larger schemes must meet the Golden Rules on affordable housing, infrastructure and green space. Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, which treats a shortfall as evidence of unmet need for land well related to a settlement and served by infrastructure, does not apply in the Green Belt, so here it reaches only the open countryside outside it. Neither route is automatic.

More Than Half the Plan Built Next Door

Policy 4 of the adopted plan provides for around 6,400 homes between 2011 and 2030. The council's supply report puts the borough's own capacity at around 3,000, leaving about 3,400 to be built on the edge of the town in Bromsgrove district. Two urban extensions carry that load, at Foxlydiate on the western side of the town and Brockhill to the north.

Foxlydiate. Barwood Land's project page describes up to 2,560 homes, 40% of them affordable, about 3km west of the town centre, mostly in Bromsgrove with a small part in Redditch. Both councils approved it in 2022, and a High Court challenge was dismissed in February 2023. The council's report counts 2,610 homes there, slightly more than Barwood's figure.
Brockhill. The report counts 832 homes here.
The weight of the two. Together they make up around 80% of the 4,314 homes the borough has committed but not yet built.

That is where the gap opens. The report's trajectory expects 770 homes from Foxlydiate within the five years, under a third of the total counted there, because large urban extensions build out over many years. It adds 300 from Brockhill East, one of the adopted plan's strategic sites.

Green Belt to the South, Villages at Two Levels

The adopted plan ranks the borough's settlements in three tiers: the Redditch urban area first, then Astwood Bank, which is excluded from the Green Belt, and then Feckenham, a small village set largely within the Green Belt, where development is limited to locally identified needs. That order shapes the route for any piece of land:

Inside the town or Astwood Bank. Land within the built-up area falls under policy S4, which leans towards permission unless the harm would substantially outweigh what the scheme brings. The 2025 paper calls the town centre a highly sustainable location for homes, with underused sites that may come forward.
Green Belt land on the edge of the town. Grey belt is the test: whether the land contributes strongly to checking sprawl, keeping towns apart and protecting historic towns. If not, the shortfall supplies the need.
Previously developed land in the Green Belt. Yards, depots and plots carrying lawful non-agricultural buildings have their own route, whatever the housing numbers say.
Countryside beyond the Green Belt. The 2025 paper notes that land on the borough's southern edge outside the Green Belt is classed as open countryside, and offers growth there as an option. S5 can reach well related land here, although distance from services is the obvious question.

Sites of 11 or more homes carry 30% affordable housing under policy 6 of the adopted plan, and major Green Belt schemes the higher Golden Rules share, costs we allow for from the start. Our grey belt guide sets out the tests in full.

Five Options for the Next Plan

The council consulted on Issues and Options for a new plan from 22 May to 3 July 2025. The paper put the borough's need at 489 homes a year, or 8,313 homes to 2043, and found that new land would have to be identified for around 3,900 of them. It asked where they should go, and offered five broad options:

Urban renewal, making more of land within the existing town.
Green Belt growth to the south of the borough.
Growth beyond the Green Belt, in the open countryside on the southern edge, at a scale large enough to carry its own infrastructure.
Building on some existing green space within the town.
Urban extensions crossing into neighbouring authorities.

The council has since moved the plan onto the government's new 30-month process. Its notice of intention of 29 June 2026 says it is not proposing a joint plan with any other authority, and the scoping consultation that ran from 3 July to 14 August 2026 identified no sites or draft policies.

The call for sites stays open. The council says it is still accepting submissions and will set informal cut-off points from time to time. Our guide to call for sites and local plans explains what happens to a submission once it is in.

The Land We Look for in Redditch

Fields on the southern edge of the town, towards Astwood Bank and Feckenham, where Green Belt purposes may be weaker.
Land within or next to Astwood Bank, the village the plan leaves outside the Green Belt.
Open countryside on the southern edge, beyond the Green Belt, that sits well against a road and a settlement.
Underused sites near the town centre and around district centres such as Church Hill, Matchborough and Winyates.
Yards, depots and former commercial plots with lawful buildings or hardstanding.
Large gardens and paddocks inside the built-up area with a workable access.

Small sites are as welcome as large holdings, as our page on paddocks and small sites shows. Where a site has prospects, we agree a fixed price at the outset, above the land's current value, and pay for all the planning work. You keep using the land throughout, and should permission never come, the land stays yours with nothing owed. How it works sets out each stage.

Gateway 1, a New Supply Figure and a Paused Merger

The Plan's Formal Start

The council's plan timetable places Gateway 1, the formal start of the 30-month process, in October 2026 and now runs the plan to 2044. Next come:

Source: the council's own plan timetable, which may yet slip.
Stage	Council's timetable
Consultation on plan content and evidence	June to July or August 2027
Consultation on the proposed plan	March to April or May 2028
Submission for examination	October 2028
Adoption	April 2029

The 2027 consultation should first signal which land the council favours.

The Next Supply Statement

In September 2026 the council's monitoring page still listed the April 2025 report as its latest. We do not guess the next result. Above five years, the grey belt need argument would lose its main support and the plan would become the route for Green Belt land. If supply stays short, well placed land can still be tested by application while the plan is written.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 129%, Redditch faces none of the test's consequences. A result below 95% would bring an action plan and one below 85% a 20% buffer on the supply calculation, which would widen the shortfall.

North Worcestershire, on Hold

On 16 July 2026 the government decided that Redditch would join Bromsgrove and Wyre Forest in a North Worcestershire council from April 2028, as reported by the Bromsgrove Standard. A government review announced on 7 September 2026 put that on hold, and the Redditch Standard reported the county's programme paused. Next May's elections go ahead on today's boundaries. If a northern council does go ahead, the two authorities that share Foxlydiate and Brockhill would sit under one roof. Until anything changes, the borough council remains the body preparing the plan.

What This Means for Timing

Grey belt, previously developed land and sites inside the town can be looked at now, while the supply position stands as it does.
Larger Green Belt holdings are best readied for the 2027 content and evidence consultation, through the open call for sites.
Unsure where your land fits? A free desktop review from us settles it before anything else.

Questions About Land in Redditch

Do Foxlydiate and Brockhill already meet the need my land could serve?

Not on the council's figures. Both are already counted in its supply, which still falls short of five years, and the 2025 paper found new land would have to be identified for around 3,900 homes to 2043.

My land is on the edge of Redditch but in Bromsgrove district. Whose figures apply?

Bromsgrove District Council decides applications there, under its own plan and housing figures, even where the homes would meet Redditch's needs. We check the boundary first on every site near the town's edge, and our Worcestershire page shows how each council in the county stands.

I own land near Feckenham. Is it all Green Belt?

Not necessarily. Feckenham itself sits largely within the Green Belt, but the council says land on the borough's southern edge outside it is classed as open countryside. Which side your land falls on changes the tests it faces, so we check the policies map first.

I missed the 2025 consultation. Can I still put land forward?

Yes. The council is still accepting call for sites submissions, with occasional informal cut-offs. Evidence is best ready for the mid 2027 consultation, and we prepare it at our cost.

I have a garage block and yard near a district centre. Is that of interest?

Often, yes. Land inside the town is judged under policy S4, which starts from approval, and urban renewal is one of the council's own options for the new plan. Access, parking and neighbours usually decide how many homes fit.

Tell Us About Your Land in Redditch

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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.