Land in Dorset

Housing and the local plan

In the government’s Housing Delivery Test 2025, Dorset built 88% of the homes it needed over three years: action plan.

The council delivered under 95% of the homes it needed, so it must publish an action plan.

A new plan, the Dorset Council Local Plan 2026-2043, 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 21,023 outlines of an acre or more, 3,119 (15%) are mostly in Green Belt. 2,738 (13%) are partly in flood zone 3, the highest risk.

7,743 (37%) of them are in a nutrient neutrality catchment (Chesil and the Fleet SAC/Ramsar/SPA; Parrett Catchment; Poole Harbour SPA/Ramsar; River Avon SAC; River Axe SAC), 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

6% of the graded farmland outlines of an acre or more are grade 1 or 2, the best and most versatile land.

• Grade 1176
• Grade 2958
• Grade 313,020
• Grade 44,695
• Grade 5786
• Non-agricultural607
• Urban680

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

2,311 outlines of an acre or more are within 1 km of a primary or grid substation. The network operator publishes spare demand capacity at 33 substations here, about 326 MW in all.

The best 2 km square for a data centre scores 72 out of 100, and 2 squares score 70 or more. Data centre site search →