Areas we cover
Where We Buy Land in England
We review land anywhere in England. These are the counties where we are most active. Each county page shows, council by council, how housing delivery is going and where the local plan stands, using the government's own figures.
Counties We Cover
Choose a county to see its councils, the planning context and the places we look.
Not on the list? We still review land anywhere in England. Ask for a free review.
The 20 Counties at a Glance
Every figure below is counted from the 2025 Housing Delivery Test results for the councils on our county pages.
| County | Councils | Below 75% | 75% to 94% | Lowest result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxfordshire | 5 | 1 | 0 | Oxford, 65% |
| Buckinghamshire | 2 | 0 | 1 | Buckinghamshire, 94% |
| Hampshire | 11 | 4 | 4 | Gosport, 25% |
| Surrey | 11 | 5 | 1 | Epsom and Ewell, 33% |
| Kent | 13 | 7 | 4 | Sevenoaks, 25% |
| Cambridgeshire | 6 | 0 | 1 | Cambridge, 82% |
| Bedfordshire | 3 | 1 | 1 | Luton, 54% |
| Hertfordshire | 10 | 5 | 2 | Hertsmere, 26% |
| Essex | 12 | 3 | 1 | Castle Point, 11% |
| Warwickshire | 5 | 0 | 0 | Warwick, 128% |
| Worcestershire | 6 | 1 | 1 | Bromsgrove, 58% |
| Northamptonshire | 2 | 0 | 0 | West Northamptonshire, 104% |
| Leicestershire | 7 | 1 | 1 | Charnwood, 62% |
| Nottinghamshire | 7 | 0 | 1 | Ashfield, 93% |
| Derbyshire | 8 | 1 | 1 | Erewash, 49% |
| Gloucestershire | 6 | 3 | 1 | Cheltenham, 56% |
| Wiltshire | 2 | 0 | 2 | Swindon, 87% |
| Cheshire | 3 | 0 | 0 | Warrington, 134% |
| West Sussex | 7 | 3 | 1 | Crawley, 36% |
| Berkshire | 6 | 2 | 0 | Slough, 54% |
| All 20 counties | 132 | 37 | 23 | Castle Point, 11% |
Unitary councils are counted with the county they sit in. Medway is in the Kent figures, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, Luton in Bedfordshire, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, Swindon in Wiltshire and Warrington in Cheshire.
Across the 20 counties, 37 of 132 councils scored below 75%, a little under three in ten. That is close to the national picture of 93 out of 301, but the spread is very uneven. Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire account for 17 of the 37. Every council in Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Cheshire built more homes than it needed.
Why the Council Matters as Much as the Land
Two identical fields can have very different prospects depending on which side of a council boundary they sit. The planning rules are national, but they are applied council by council, and each council is at a different point with its local plan and its housing delivery.
Two figures tell you a great deal. The first is the council's result in the government's Housing Delivery Test, which compares the homes actually built over three years with the number that were needed. The second is how old the council's local plan is and whether a new one is on the way.
Reading the Housing Delivery Test
The Housing Delivery Test is published each year by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The 2025 measurement, published on 17 August 2026, covers the three years from April 2022 to March 2025.
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| 95% or more | No action required. |
| Below 95% | The council must prepare an action plan explaining how it will improve delivery. |
| Below 85% | A 20% buffer is added to the council's five-year housing land supply requirement. |
| Below 75% | Under policy S5 of the August 2026 NPPF, the council is treated as having evidenced unmet housing need, one of the routes to approving homes outside settlement boundaries. |
Of the 301 councils measured in 2025, 93 scored below 75%. In those areas, well-located land on the edge of a town or village has a clearer route to planning permission than it had before, provided the site itself is suitable. A strong result does not rule land out, but it usually means the council expects housing to come through its local plan allocations.
Reading the Local Plan Position
A local plan sets how many homes a council needs and where they should go. Plans are meant to be reviewed at least every five years. Where a plan is older than that, the council's housing requirement is usually worked out using the government's standard method, which in many places gives a higher number than the old plan did.
A council that is preparing a new plan is usually looking for land. Its call for sites is the moment to put land forward, and later consultation stages are the chance to support it. Our guide to call for sites and local plans explains each step. Councils in England are moving to a new, faster plan-making system, which began on 25 March 2026, with plans expected to be prepared within 30 months.
A Regional View
South East
High land values, a lot of Green Belt and strongly protected landscapes, and some of the weakest housing delivery in the country. In parts of Surrey, Kent and West Sussex, councils have delivered well under half of the homes they needed. Grey belt policy has opened new possibilities on the edge of towns and villages, but constraints such as the Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes remain powerful.
Hampshire is split down the middle. Winchester, Rushmoor and Hart delivered well above their requirement, while Gosport (25%), New Forest (48%), Fareham (60%) and Test Valley (64%) are all below 75%. The New Forest and South Downs National Parks cover large areas, and concern about nutrient pollution in the Solent has held up housing approvals in parts of south Hampshire in recent years.
In Berkshire, Slough (54%) and Windsor and Maidenhead (74%) are the two councils below 75%, and both are tightly bounded by Green Belt. Reading, West Berkshire, Bracknell Forest and Wokingham all scored 100% or more.
East of England
A mix of fast-growing places, such as the Cambridge area and parts of Essex, and districts with very weak delivery, particularly in south Hertfordshire and south Essex where Green Belt is extensive. The corridor between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge remains a focus for growth.
Midlands
Many Midlands councils are building well above their requirement, which means the route to planning is more often through local plan allocations than through a shortfall. Several councils are preparing new plans now, including a joint South Warwickshire plan published in July 2026.
The exceptions are Erewash (49%), Bromsgrove (58%) and Charnwood (62%). Erewash and Bromsgrove both have a lot of Green Belt, so the grey belt tests usually decide what is possible there. Charnwood adopted a new local plan in January 2026, so its allocations are the starting point.
South West
Gloucestershire has a clear split between councils delivering strongly and those well below target, including Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Cotswolds. Wiltshire and Swindon are both preparing new plans, and the Cotswolds National Landscape covers a large part of the region.
North West
The Cheshire councils and Warrington are all delivering well above their requirement, so the route to planning is usually through allocation or through sites that meet one of the other tests in national policy.
Where a Low Score Helps, and Where It Does Not
A score below 75% opens the unmet need route in policy S5, but that route has limits. It does not apply in the Green Belt, and several of the lowest-scoring councils have a large share of their land in the Green Belt, including Hertsmere, Three Rivers, Basildon, Sevenoaks and Tandridge. There, land outside a town or village usually has to qualify as grey belt, or be released through the local plan. Our guide to grey belt land explains the tests, and our guide to the August 2026 NPPF covers S5.
National Parks need the same care. New Forest scored 48%, but a large part of the district lies in the New Forest National Park, which has its own planning authority. The low result speaks for the land outside the park.
A strong score is not a dead end either. In Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, several councils have new plans out for consultation or at examination, and a plan in preparation needs land. In those places the local plan is usually the better route, and timing matters more than housing numbers.
How to Check Your Own Council
You can do most of this yourself in an evening. It is also part of our free review.
- Find the right council. Enter your postcode on GOV.UK's find your local council service. Where there is a county council and district councils, housing applications go to the district or borough council.
- Look up its Housing Delivery Test result. The 2025 measurement is a spreadsheet covering every council. Our county pages show the result for each council in the counties above.
- Check the age of its local plan. The council's planning policy pages show when the current plan was adopted and the timetable for the next one.
- Look at the land put forward to it. Most councils publish the sites submitted in a call for sites, often in a housing and economic land availability assessment. Check whether your land, or a neighbour's, is already in it.
- Read its housing land supply position. This is usually in an annual monitoring report or a five-year housing land supply statement. A shortfall is also evidence of unmet need under S5.
- Search nearby decisions. The council's online planning register shows applications near your land. Appeal decisions show how an inspector weighed the same policies, and are worth reading where a nearby scheme was refused.
None of this tells you whether your own field will work. Access, flood risk, landscape and the shape of the site matter just as much. Ask for a free review and we will put the council picture and the site together.
Questions About Areas
Do you buy land outside these counties?
Yes. These are the counties where we are most active, but we review land anywhere in England.
Does a low Housing Delivery Test result guarantee planning permission?
No. It strengthens the case for well-located housing, but flood risk, landscape, heritage, access and Green Belt policy still apply to every site.
How often do these figures change?
The Housing Delivery Test is published once a year and covers the previous three financial years. A council just above 75% can fall below it the following year, and the reverse, so a result is a snapshot rather than a verdict.
My land is in the Green Belt and my council scored below 75%. Does that help?
Not through the unmet need route in policy S5, which does not apply in the Green Belt. A shortage of homes can still count as evidence of need under the grey belt tests, but the land has to qualify as grey belt first.
My council is reorganising. Does that matter?
Several two-tier areas are being reorganised into new unitary councils. Planning decisions continue while that happens, and existing local plans stay in force until they are replaced.
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