How Much Is Land Worth Across Melton Borough?

We plot the registered title against the adopted policies map and distinguish an allocation, reserve site, sustainable neighbourhood, employment designation, settlement boundary and unallocated countryside. We also check permissions, site history and whether the land is already committed to another use. This avoids attributing development value merely because an adjacent parcel is shown for growth.

The submitted partial update is considered separately from the adopted position. Proposed wording and examination evidence may affect promotion strategy, but they should not be presented as adopted policy before the examination is complete. Our guides to Local Plan allocation and Call for Sites submissions explain the difference between putting land forward, receiving a positive assessment and securing an allocation.

A published supply above five years can make speculative planning arguments more demanding, especially where adopted allocations remain capable of delivery. We review the Council’s trajectory, completions, stalled or delayed sites, permissions, reserve sites and the remaining contribution expected from the sustainable neighbourhoods and rural allocations. The position can differ materially between the borough total and an individual settlement.

Housing supply is not a valuation multiplier. It is one part of the planning balance and can change over time as sites deliver or fall behind. A credible assessment explains whether the land fills an evidenced gap, offers a deliverable alternative or is more realistically a longer-term promotion opportunity. Read our guides to the five-year housing land supply and the Housing Delivery Test.

The A606, A607, A52 and the borough’s rural road network create very different access conditions. Pork Pie Way can support movement and planned growth around Melton Mowbray, while Bottesford and Melton Mowbray also benefit from rail connections. None of those factors replaces the need for a safe site access, adequate visibility, pedestrian routes, public-transport connections and an acceptable effect on local junctions.

We also consider education capacity, foul drainage, water and electricity connections, service diversions and developer contributions. A new strategic road may improve the wider network while a particular parcel still requires costly local works. Those costs can reduce residual land value and should be tested before a gross residential value is applied. See our access and highways guide and utilities and infrastructure guide.

Melton Borough has no designated Green Belt. Greenfield land should not therefore be described or valued as Green Belt land simply because it is open, agricultural or outside a village. The relevant local controls can instead include settlement strategy, Areas of Separation, Local Green Space, settlement-fringe sensitivity, landscape character, heritage, ecology and agricultural land quality.

The absence of Green Belt does not create a general presumption that countryside can be developed. We examine what the land contributes to the setting and separation of settlements, whether a defensible edge could be formed and whether development would create an isolated or visually exposed extension. These questions affect planning risk, likely density and the proportion of the holding that may be developable.

River valleys, smaller watercourses, surface-water routes and low-lying land affect parts of the borough. We check flood zones, ordinary watercourses, safe access, drainage outfalls, easements and the space required for sustainable drainage. Agricultural ditches or apparently minor level changes can materially influence a layout once attenuation, exceedance routes and maintenance access are designed.

Hedgerows, trees, protected species, habitat connections and biodiversity net gain also require land. These matters may improve the quality of a scheme but reduce the saleable residential or employment area. The relevant valuation is therefore based on net developable acreage, not the full title area. Read our guides to flood risk and drainage and ecology and development land.

Made neighbourhood plans cover many of Melton’s parishes, including Asfordby, Bottesford, Clawson–Hose–Harby, Frisby, Gaddesby, Old Dalby, Scalford, Somerby, Stathern, Waltham and Wymondham. They can add allocations, local green spaces, design policies, important views and settlement-specific evidence to the borough-wide plan. A district-level assessment that ignores that layer can materially overstate or understate prospects.

Conservation areas, listed buildings, archaeology, church towers, historic approaches and characteristic village gaps can affect both the principle and form of development. We consider whether a scheme could preserve important settings and whether heritage or landscape mitigation is likely to reduce height, density or the usable site boundary. Our heritage and development land guide explains the principal checks.

Melton’s agricultural, food-production, manufacturing and rural-business economy means existing uses can carry meaningful value and operational constraints. An employment or farm site should not automatically be valued for housing. We examine policy protection, relocation requirements, access by commercial vehicles, noise, odour, contamination, demolition and service costs before comparing alternative uses.

The Council maintains a brownfield register, but inclusion is not the same as detailed planning permission and does not remove viability or technical issues. Conversely, a well-located underused site may have a clearer short-term route than an unconstrained-looking field outside the settlement strategy. See our brownfield land registers guide and agricultural land value guide.

We identify whether the strongest route is an application under adopted policy, delivery of an existing allocation, promotion through the Local Plan or a neighbourhood plan, reuse or redevelopment, or a longer-term hold. The timescale and evidence required for each route affect risk and therefore the price a rational buyer or promoter may attribute today.

The conclusion should distinguish existing-use value, hope value and potential development value. A planning-led figure is not a promise of permission or a simple price per acre; it is an opinion based on the likely use, net developable area, local sales values, affordable housing, infrastructure, planning obligations, abnormal costs, finance, developer return and the probability and timing of securing the necessary planning position.