North West
Land in Cheshire West and Chester
Figures for the Cheshire West and Chester council area (920 km²) from the open data behind our tools: registered land by size, planning constraints, farmland quality, the electricity network, brownfield sites, and land that may not be registered at all.
14,269
registered land outlines of an acre or more, 2,379 of them 20 acres or more.
Search them in the site finder →147
brownfield register sites, 259 hectares in all, with room for at least 6,741 homes by the council's estimate.
See them on the map →1,823
plots that may not be registered with HM Land Registry, on our sister site.
Unregistered land in Cheshire West and Chester →838
outlines that pass the site finder’s solar farm starting filters: 20 acres or more, near a substation, outside the main constraints and the best farmland.
Show them →Housing and the local plan
In the government’s Housing Delivery Test 2025, Cheshire West and Chester built 244% of the homes it needed over three years: no consequence.
The council delivered at least 95% of the homes it needed.
Its adopted local plan is the Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part One) Strategic Policies, adopted January 2015 (11 years ago; plans are meant to be reviewed at least every five years).
A new plan, the Local Plan Issues and Options 2025, is at early consultation (Regulation 18).
From MHCLG’s Housing Delivery Test and the Planning Data platform’s local plan records, which some councils haven’t kept up to date. Whether the tilted balance applies to a scheme also depends on the council’s five-year land supply and the site itself: get planning advice.
Planning constraints
Of the 14,269 outlines of an acre or more, 6,620 (46%) are mostly in Green Belt. 1,491 (10%) are partly in flood zone 3, the highest risk.
59 (0%) of them are in a nutrient neutrality catchment (Oak Mere SAC; West Midlands Mosses SAC (Abbotts Moss)), where new homes and overnight stays must offset the nutrient pollution they would add, usually by buying credits.
From the government’s Planning Data platform. Check any site with Planning check.
Farmland quality
15% of the graded farmland outlines of an acre or more are grade 1 or 2, the best and most versatile land.
- Grade 21,859
- Grade 310,139
- Grade 4561
- Grade 522
- Non-agricultural82
- Urban1,453
Natural England’s provisional grades at the centre of each outline. A broad-scale map, so a field survey is needed for any one site.
Electricity network
2,419 outlines of an acre or more are within 1 km of a primary or grid substation.
The best 2 km square for a data centre scores 91 out of 100, and 42 squares score 70 or more. Data centre site search →
Nearby council areas
Counts are of HM Land Registry INSPIRE title outlines (one title can have several outlines, and an outline isn’t always one field), counted under the council HM Land Registry files them with. Substations are from OpenStreetMap. None of this says whether land is for sale or could get planning permission. Sources: HM Land Registry; MHCLG Planning Data; Provisional Agricultural Land Classification © Natural England, Open Government Licence; the councils’ brownfield land registers; network operator open data; © OpenStreetMap contributors.