Selling Land in Wychavon

• Farmland on the edges of Evesham, Pershore, Droitwich Spa and larger villages such as Honeybourne, Inkberrow or Badsey, for the new plan's call for sites.
• Plots, yards and backland inside the towns and villages, which policy S4 treats favourably.
• Previously developed land: former defence and trading estate sites, old yards, depots and commercial premises.
• Small sites and rural exception sites for affordable homes in villages, read against any neighbourhood plan.
• Larger holdings that could suit a strategic site, including land within the Throckmorton area of search.

Some land is harder: fields in the Avon flood plain, land in the Cotswolds National Landscape, and open Green Belt around Droitwich Spa. We still look at all of it.

The price is settled on day one and set higher than the land's present value. Every survey, report and application is ours to fund and manage, and the risk sits with us. Should permission come, we buy the land and the agreed sum is paid to you; should it not, the land stays yours with nothing owed. Farming or grazing carries on meanwhile. Our how it works page shows each step.

• 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.

Before adoption, each council measured its housing land separately. The last report written that way, published in January 2026, used the government's standard method because the 2016 plan had passed five years. At 976 homes a year, Wychavon's need was the largest of the three, against 646 for Malvern Hills and 559 for the city:

The sum counted only permissions and windfalls, so the plan's new sites, from the new town to the Droitwich allocations, added nothing. None of the three councils reached five years, and the presumption in favour of sustainable development applied.

One Figure for Three Councils

Adoption changed the method as well as the answer. The June 2026 supply report says the new plan formally establishes a single joint approach, so it tests South Worcestershire as a whole against the plan's 1,178 homes a year and finds 5.48 years at 1 April 2026. No Wychavon result is published, and permissions and allocations are not split by council. What it does show is Wychavon's share of building: 429 of the 1,237 homes completed across the three councils in 2025/26.

Its 20% buffer follows a national rule for decisions from 1 July 2026: the adopted requirement, examined under an earlier framework, is less than 80% of South Worcestershire's current standard method need, 2,150 a year.

What the Joint Figure Means for an Application

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 backs homes past a settlement's edge where unmet need is evidenced, and a supply short of five years counts as evidence, though never automatically, and only for land that sits well against the settlement and has the infrastructure it needs. Here the joint figure clears five years and delivery stands at 103%, so an unallocated field outside Evesham or Pershore lacks that evidence for now. Inside the towns and villages, policy S4 applies, and permission should follow unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits.

In the Green Belt around Droitwich Spa, S5 does not apply at all. Grey belt there has its own need test, usually shown by a delivery result under 75% or a supply short of five years. Neither holds today, so most grey belt housing cases in the north wait on the next plan, and larger schemes must also meet the Golden Rules. Our grey belt guide explains how the purposes are weighed.

The inspectors' report of 12 March 2026 reshaped several Wychavon proposals:

The report also found anomalies in the new significant gaps, where the planning status of some land had changed, and left them to the review the new plan-making system requires. Wychavon's gaps under policy SWDPR 08 include Droitwich Spa to Doverdale and Hampton Lovett, Evesham to Hampton, Pebworth and Whittington.

An owner selling land between Droitwich Spa and Hampton Lovett, or between Evesham and Hampton, should check the gap line before anything else, bearing in mind that the inspectors' note on anomalies means some of those lines may move in the review.

In Evesham, change is coming first to the town centre. Wychavon's planning committee approved demolition of the Riverside Shopping Centre on 20 August 2026, for a mix of housing, shops and leisure. The council aims to appoint a contractor by October 2026, demolish from spring 2027 and submit a planning application in spring 2028.

In the villages, the council's neighbourhood planning page lists made plans including Bredon (July 2017), Honeybourne (April 2020), Ombersley and Doverdale (October 2021) and Broadway (October 2022), with Harvington's review made in February 2025, and drafts for Droitwich Spa, Crowle and South Lenches. A made plan carries equal weight to the local plan, so we read it before judging any village field.