Land in Wiltshire

Housing and the local plan

In the government’s Housing Delivery Test 2025, Wiltshire built 93% 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.

Its adopted local plan is the Wiltshire Core Strategy, adopted January 2015 (11 years ago; plans are meant to be reviewed at least every five years).

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 25,157 outlines of an acre or more, 1,152 (5%) are mostly in Green Belt. 3,162 (13%) are partly in flood zone 3, the highest risk.

9,078 (36%) of them are in a nutrient neutrality catchment (Brue Catchment; River Avon SAC; River Lambourn SAC; Solent), 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

20% of the graded farmland outlines of an acre or more are grade 1 or 2, the best and most versatile land.

• Grade 1757
• Grade 24,010
• Grade 314,622
• Grade 43,869
• Grade 5172
• Non-agricultural557
• Urban1,170

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

2,354 outlines of an acre or more are within 1 km of a primary or grid substation. The network operator publishes spare demand capacity at 28 substations here, about 307 MW in all.

The best 2 km square for a data centre scores 77 out of 100, and 9 squares score 70 or more. Data centre site search →