A Strategic Guide to Rural Exception Sites for Landowners and Developers
If you own a paddock, a field, or a scrap of land on the edge of a desirable village, you likely know the frustration.
You look at the Local Plan. You see the “Settlement Boundary” drawn tightly around the village. Your land is on the wrong side of that red line. In planning terms, it is “open countryside.” It might as well be the Green Belt.
A planning consultant might tell you: “Sorry, no chance. It’s outside the boundary.”
A standard developer might say: “Call me in 5 years when the Local Plan is reviewed.”
But a strategic planner asks a different question: “Is there a housing need in this village?”
If the answer is yes, that red line on the map isn’t a wall. It’s a door. And the key to opening it is the Rural Exception Site.
I’m Mark Turner, founder of Silverback Planning Solutions. During my time as a Head of Planning, I saw hundreds of standard applications fail on these edge-of-village sites. But I also approved many Rural Exception Sites.
Why? Because they are the only planning mechanism that allows you to build new homes in the open countryside without relying on the Local Plan allocation.
However, they are complex, political, and easy to get wrong. Most landowners leave value on the table because they don’t understand the “deal.” Here is the insider’s guide to getting it right.
What is a Rural Exception Site? (The “Deal”)
Let’s strip away the jargon. A Rural Exception Site (defined in the NPPF) is a policy deal.
The Council’s Problem: They have a housing crisis. Young people, key workers, and families are being priced out of their own villages. They need affordable homes, but they don’t have the land.
Your Solution: You provide the land at a price significantly lower than full residential value (but significantly higher than agricultural value) to solve their problem.
The Reward: In exchange, the Council grants planning permission on land where it would normally be strictly forbidden.
It is not a loophole. It is a specific, government-backed policy mechanism designed to keep rural communities alive.
But here is where the “Silverback” strategy comes in. Most people think these sites must be 100% affordable housing. They are wrong.
The “Silverback” Insight: The Power of Cross-Subsidy
This is the single most valuable piece of advice I can give a landowner.
If a Housing Association offers you “agricultural value plus a bit” for your land to build 10 affordable units, that might not be enough incentive for you to sell. The project stalls. Nobody wins.
National policy (NPPF Paragraph 82) explicitly allows for “Market Housing” on these sites, provided it is there to facilitate the affordable housing.
This is called Cross-Subsidy.
As a former Chief Planning Officer, I know the internal mathematics. If we needed those affordable homes, and the only way the landowner would sell is if we allowed 3 or 4 expensive, private market detached houses on the frontage, we would do the deal.
The Strategy:
We don’t just submit a plan for affordable housing. We submit a Financial Viability Assessment.
We prove to the Council:
The cost of building the affordable homes is high.
The grant funding is limited.
Therefore, to make the scheme viable and incentivise the land release, we require 30% or 40% of the site to be high-value Market Housing.
This turns a “community project” into a commercially viable development that delivers a significant return for the landowner and solves the village’s housing crisis.
The “Hearts and Minds” Battle: Winning the Parish Council
The biggest mistake developers make with Exception Sites is treating them like normal applications.
If you submit a surprise application for 15 homes on a field edge, the village will revolt. The Parish Council will object. The Ward Member will call it in. You will lose.
Exception Sites are unique because they rely on Local Support.
When I lead a Rural Exception Site strategy, we invert the process. We don’t talk to the Planning Department first. We talk to the Parish Council.
The “Housing Needs Survey”: We don’t guess demand. We commission an independent survey of the village. We find the data: “There are 12 families in this village living in overcrowded conditions who want to stay here.”
The Solution Pitch: We present this data to the Parish Council. We say: “We can solve this problem for your residents. We can build the homes your grandchildren need to stay in the village.”
The Partnership: We bring the Parish Council on board as partners. We let them have a say in the local lettings policy (ensuring the homes go to local people, not just anyone on the district list).
When you walk into the Planning Officer’s office with the Parish Council already supporting you, the dynamic changes completely. The officer isn’t fighting a developer; they are facilitating a community-led solution.
The Risk Profile: Why You Need a Tenacious Expert
Make no mistake: these are not easy sites.
The “Landscape” Fight: Officers will still argue about “encroachment into the countryside.” You need a planner who can argue the “Tilted Balance” of public benefit.
The “Viability” Fight: The Council’s Housing Officer will try to minimise the Market Housing (Cross-Subsidy). You need a planner who understands development finance and can defend the numbers.
The S106 Agreement: This legal agreement controls who can live in the houses “in perpetuity.” Get this wrong, and the Mortgage Lenders won’t lend, and the site becomes unsellable.
Don’t Let Your Land Sit Idle
If you have land on the edge of a village, don’t just accept the red line on the map.
A Rural Exception Site is one of the most powerful tools in the planning system. It unlocks value from “hopeless” land. It delivers a legacy for the community. And done right, with the correct cross-subsidy, it is highly commercially attractive.
But it requires a steady hand, a strategic approach to the Parish Council, and the “insider” knowledge to negotiate the deal.
That is what I do.
About the Author
Mark Turner is a Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI) and the founder of Silverback Planning Solutions. With over 25 years of dual-sided experience—including as a former Head of Planning and Chief Planning Officer—he specializes in unlocking complex rural sites and negotiating high-value strategic permissions.
Do you own land on the edge of a village? Let’s assess its “Exception” potential.
[Contact Silverback Planning Solutions for a Strategic Land Review]
