Stratford Housing Land Shortfall Persists as Homebuilding Slows

Update, 4 November: the Cabinet backed the plan on 2 November after some challenge. Read what was said.

Stratford-on-Avon District Council still has well under half the housing land it needs, and the number of new homes being finished each year has fallen by more than half since 2021. A report to the council’s Cabinet on Monday 2 November puts the district’s housing land supply at 2.43 years, against the five years national planning rules expect.

That is up from 2.21 years a year earlier, but the report calls it “a modest improvement” and says the council “remains substantially below five years”. The shortfall is about 2,927 homes.

Why the Stratford housing land supply matters

While a council can’t show five years’ supply, national policy tilts planning decisions towards approving housing, and rules that limit where and how much can be built, such as village size limits in the district’s Core Strategy, carry less weight. That is why officers’ reports on many of the village housing schemes we have covered give the shortage so much weight. The council’s figure was last tested at the Bordon Hill appeal in September 2025, when an inspector found only 2.73 years of supply.

The figures

• Needed: 5,691 homes over the five years from April 2026 (1,084 a year, plus a 5% buffer).
• Counted as deliverable: 2,764 homes, including 1,096 on sites where building is under way and 687 with full permission not yet started.
• Homes completed: 1,573 in 2021/22, 1,431 in 2022/23, 1,010 in 2023/24, 895 in 2024/25 and 626 in 2025/26. The report links the fall to the wider housing market and to infrastructure problems on some sites.
• In the pipeline: 91 sites are being monitored. Highways problems were recorded on 22 and drainage or flooding issues on 10.

What the Cabinet is being asked to do

Councillors are asked to note the progress of the council’s action plan and to endorse a revised interim policy statement, updated after the government’s new National Planning Policy Framework in August 2026, for use when deciding applications. It says policies on affordable housing and housing mix still carry full weight. Of the district’s 32 neighbourhood plans, it finds that Long Marston, Quinton and Tysoe still meet the national tests that give them extra protection, while Southam and Tanworth-in-Arden don’t. An updated assessment of the Core Strategy goes on to Full Council. No public consultation has been held on the revised statement.

The aim is to show more than five years’ supply at 31 March 2027, in figures published in summer 2027, with another report to Cabinet in June. The statement stops applying once the council can show five years or the South Warwickshire Local Plan is adopted.

How to watch or speak

The Cabinet meets at 10am on Monday 2 November in the Council Chamber at Elizabeth House, Church Street, and the meeting is streamed on the council’s YouTube channel. The deadline to register to speak has passed (midday two working days before). Planning applications near you are on our Planning near me map, and every Wednesday our planning column lists the new ones.

Alex Harrington

Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.