Land in Cotswold

Housing and the local plan

In the government’s Housing Delivery Test 2025, Cotswold built 68% of the homes it needed over three years: presumption in favour.

The council delivered under 75% of the homes it needed, so national policy's presumption in favour of sustainable development (the "tilted balance") applies to housing applications: permission should be granted unless the harm would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, or protective policies such as Green Belt, National Landscapes or flood risk give a clear reason to refuse.

Its adopted local plan is the Local Plan 2011-2031, adopted August 2018 (8 years ago; plans are meant to be reviewed at least every five years).

A new plan, the Cotswold District Local Plan 2025-2043, 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 8,708 outlines of an acre or more, 25 (0%) are mostly in Green Belt. 1,064 (12%) are partly in flood zone 3, the highest risk.

From the government’s Planning Data platform. Check any site with Planning check.

Farmland quality

7% of the graded farmland outlines of an acre or more are grade 1 or 2, the best and most versatile land.

• Grade 161
• Grade 2541
• Grade 36,802
• Grade 4947
• Grade 515
• Non-agricultural238
• Urban104

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

581 outlines of an acre or more are within 1 km of a primary or grid substation. The network operator publishes spare demand capacity at 7 substations here, about 85 MW in all.

The best 2 km square for a data centre scores 56 out of 100. Data centre site search →