Kent, South East
Land in Swale
Figures for the Swale council area (373 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.
5,097
registered land outlines of an acre or more, 1,006 of them 20 acres or more.
Search them in the site finder →57
brownfield register sites, 112 hectares in all, with room for at least 4,943 homes by the council's estimate.
See them on the map →294
plots that may not be registered with HM Land Registry, on our sister site.
Unregistered land in Swale →81
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, Swale built 70% 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 Adopted Local Plan for Swale, adopted July 2017 (9 years ago; plans are meant to be reviewed at least every five years).
A new plan, the Local Plan Review, is at draft stage.
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
None of Swale’s larger outlines are mostly in Green Belt. 1,254 (25%) are partly in flood zone 3, the highest risk.
100 (2%) of them are in a nutrient neutrality catchment (Stodmarsh SAC/SPA/Ramsar), 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
61% of the graded farmland outlines of an acre or more are grade 1 or 2, the best and most versatile land.
- Grade 11,373
- Grade 21,173
- Grade 31,269
- Grade 4324
- Grade 531
- Non-agricultural356
- Urban434
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
652 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 89 out of 100, and 2 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.