Selling Land in West Sussex

West Sussex has seven district and borough councils, which decide planning applications and prepare local plans, and West Sussex County Council, which is responsible for roads, schools and minerals. Adur and Worthing share one set of officers but keep separate plans. Inside the South Downs National Park, planning is decided by the National Park Authority.

• Three councils well below 75%. Crawley delivered 36% of the homes it needed in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, Horsham 44% and Adur 48%. Each is treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy.
• Arun is below 85%. It delivered 84%, so a 20% buffer is added to its land supply.
• Three councils above target. Worthing scored 142%, Chichester 124% and Mid Sussex 104%.
• Water neutrality has ended. From 2021 new homes in the Sussex North water supply area had to show they would not increase water use. Natural England withdrew that requirement on 31 October 2025.
• No Green Belt. Instead, councils use countryside and gap policies to keep towns and villages apart, and those are weighed against housing need.

Water Neutrality and Its Removal

In September 2021 Natural England advised that new development supplied from Southern Water's Sussex North supply zone, which takes in Horsham, Crawley and parts of Chichester district and the National Park, had to be water neutral. The concern was water abstraction harming protected wetlands in the Arun Valley. For four years that slowed or stopped many housing schemes. In October 2025, after Southern Water and the Environment Agency agreed a cap on the abstraction licence, Natural England withdrew its advice. New homes still have to meet a tighter water efficiency standard of 110 litres per person per day, but no longer have to offset their water use. Councils have been working through the backlog since.

The South Downs National Park

The National Park runs east to west across the county, from the Hampshire border near Petersfield to beyond the Adur. It has the highest level of landscape protection, and its own planning authority. Land just outside the boundary, on the edge of towns such as Worthing, Lancing and Storrington, is judged on its effect on views to and from the Downs.

The High Weald and Chichester Harbour

The High Weald National Landscape covers much of the north east, around East Grinstead and the villages south of Crawley. Chichester Harbour National Landscape covers the harbour and its shoreline villages west of Chichester. Major development inside either is only allowed in exceptional circumstances. In Chichester district, new homes that drain to the harbour also have to be nutrient neutral, because nitrogen is harming its protected waters.

Ashdown Forest

Ashdown Forest, just over the border in East Sussex, is protected for its heathland birds. New homes within a set distance of it, including around East Grinstead, pay towards managing visitors and alternative green space.

Flood Risk

The coastal plain around Selsey, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Lancing is low lying and at risk of tidal flooding. The Arun, the Adur and the western Rother have wide floodplains, and the chalk around Chichester is prone to groundwater flooding along the Lavant. Land in Flood Zones 2 and 3 faces the sequential test, though the developable area can often be kept to the drier part of a field. Our guide to flood risk and development land explains how.

Horsham is where things have changed most. It is below 75%, it has no Green Belt, and the water neutrality barrier has gone. That gives well-located land on the edge of its towns and villages a clearer route than at any time in recent years. Crawley and Adur are also below 75%, but have little open land. Elsewhere, the plan is usually the route. In practice we look at:

1. A planning application where delivery is below 75%. Land that adjoins a town or larger village in Horsham, or the few open sites on the edges of Crawley and Adur, can be put forward now under national policy.
2. Local plan allocation. Horsham and Mid Sussex have plans at examination, and every council will be preparing plans under the new system. See our guide to call for sites and local plans.
3. Previously developed land. Old yards, nurseries and commercial sites, which national policy supports inside and outside settlements.
4. Sites near stations. National policy now supports higher density homes within walking distance of well-connected stations, depending on the station and its service.
5. Early work on biodiversity and drainage. Showing the 10% biodiversity net gain and a workable drainage plan early makes a site easier to approve.

If a developer or agent approached you between 2021 and 2025 and walked away because of water neutrality, it may be worth looking at your land again.