How Much is My Land Worth in Derbyshire?

We confirm the title boundary against the district, city and National Park limits before reviewing the adopted Local Plan, policies map, neighbourhood plan, supplementary guidance and any emerging plan. This is particularly important near Derby, the Peak District boundary and the areas that will be divided by local government reorganisation. A postal address or nearest town can point to the wrong planning authority and therefore the wrong settlement strategy or policy designation.

We then distinguish an adopted allocation from a publication-plan proposal, a site under examination, a withdrawn draft and an early-stage review. The procedural stage affects weight, timing and risk. Our Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 guide explains why representations at different plan stages serve different purposes.

We identify the settlement hierarchy, development boundary and relationship between the site and nearby services. A parcel beside a principal town, a commuter settlement, a market town, a National Park village and an isolated hamlet will be assessed against different growth expectations. We also review whether the land is allocated, safeguarded, included in a SHELAA or HELAA, discounted from an assessment, covered by permission or merely submitted through a Call for Sites.

Inclusion in a land-availability assessment can support future promotion but does not grant permission or guarantee selection. We examine the council’s reasons, availability evidence, delivery assumptions, housing trajectory and competing sites serving the same settlement. See the guides to Local Plan allocation, HELAA and SHLAA assessments and Call for Sites submissions.

The M1, A38, A50, A52, A61, A6, A515, A57 and A628 support different employment and residential markets, while rail connections strengthen locations including Derby, Chesterfield, Long Eaton, Ilkeston, Matlock, Buxton, Glossop and the Hope Valley. Proximity to a corridor does not establish a lawful access, acceptable junction capacity or the right to use third-party land for visibility, widening, drainage or pedestrian connections.

Derbyshire topography can make a short access technically expensive. We review gradients, levels, retaining structures, bridges, railway interfaces, public rights of way, highway ownership and safe walking, cycling and public-transport links. Required works and land-take are deducted from the scheme before residual value is estimated. The access and highways guide and topographical survey guide explain the principal evidence.

Statutory Green Belt affects parts of Derbyshire, including land influenced by the Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby urban areas, but it is not a blanket countywide designation. Other parcels may instead be outside a development boundary, within ordinary countryside, affected by a local gap or Green Wedge, or inside the Peak District National Park. Each category has a different policy purpose and should not be valued using the same release assumptions.

Where Green Belt applies, we review the defined boundary, the parcel’s contribution, any local review evidence and whether the proposal falls within a lawful national-policy route. Inside or near the National Park, landscape character, tranquillity, views, heritage and statutory purposes carry exceptional weight. The Green Belt land value guide and landscape guide explain the separate tests.

Former coalfield areas around Bolsover, Chesterfield, North East Derbyshire, Amber Valley and Erewash may require checks for mine entries, shallow workings, spoil, made ground, contamination and ground-gas risk. Where a site lies within a Development High Risk Area, most relevant planning applications require a Coal Mining Risk Assessment, followed where necessary by intrusive investigation, treatment or foundation allowances. Regeneration policy may support reuse, but the cost of making land safe and serviceable must still be reflected in value.

Limestone and aggregate working, quarry edges and mineral safeguarding are also important in parts of the Dales, High Peak and elsewhere. Derbyshire County Council and Derby City Council submitted the replacement Derbyshire and Derby Minerals Local Plan, covering the area outside the National Park to 2038, for examination on 29 November 2024. We check safeguarding areas, consultation zones and restoration obligations rather than assuming that non-mineral development is unconstrained simply because the surface appears vacant or agricultural.

The Derwent, Trent, Dove, Rother, Erewash, Wye and Goyt catchments create different flood and drainage constraints across the county. Main-river flood zones are only part of the assessment. Surface-water flow paths, steep upstream catchments, culverts, ordinary watercourses, groundwater, sewer capacity and the availability of a lawful outfall can alter the layout, programme and amount of land capable of accommodating buildings.

In affected parts of the Peak District Dales Special Area of Conservation catchment, development that increases wastewater or nutrient output may also need to demonstrate nutrient neutrality. High Peak is developing a phosphorus-credit scheme, but mitigation availability and cost must be verified for the individual proposal rather than assumed. We value the likely net developable acreage after drainage, attenuation, buffers and mitigation land have been allowed for. Read the flood-risk and drainage guide and ecology guide for the main checks.

The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site extends for approximately 24 kilometres from Derby Silk Mill to Masson Mill near Matlock Bath, with a much wider buffer zone. Land within or affecting its setting requires careful assessment of Outstanding Universal Value, historic industrial landscapes, listed buildings, conservation areas, views and design. Similar heritage sensitivity can arise around estate landscapes, historic market towns, scheduled monuments, archaeology and traditional villages elsewhere in the county.

Southern Derbyshire also forms part of the 200-square-mile National Forest, while moorland, ancient woodland, limestone dales, species-rich grassland and river corridors create different ecological and landscape requirements across the county. Biodiversity net gain land, buffers, tree retention and habitat mitigation can improve a scheme but also reduce developable acreage. The heritage guide explains why setting and significance must be assessed before a development value is assumed.

A Derbyshire site may need schools, highway works, drainage, utilities, open space, affordable housing, habitat land and other Section 106 or policy contributions. Cross-boundary growth around Derby or Chesterfield can also depend on infrastructure controlled by another authority or landowner. We check easements, pylons, pipelines, sewer routes, substation capacity, third-party ransom interests and whether the title includes the land required to deliver the complete scheme.

The valuation is based on net saleable development after those requirements and abnormal costs are deducted, not on multiplying the gross ownership area by a headline figure. City brownfield land, a former colliery, an allocated town extension, a village-edge field and a National Park holding have different existing-use values, purchaser markets and planning risk. The guides to utilities and infrastructure, Section 106 and CIL and existing-use versus development value explain how those deductions affect the landowner’s likely receipt.