Progress to deliver existing housing allocations
The Cheshire West and Chester Local Plan (Part One) includes key strategic housing and mixed-use allocations in Chester, Ellesmere Port and Winsford. The development status of these allocations, at 1 April 2026, is as follows:
Chester
- Wrexham Road (Kings Moat) Garden Village) – planning permission granted for up to 1,200 new homes. Over 760 units have been completed, and phases three and four (518 units) have commenced.
Ellesmere Port
- Ledsham Garden Village- planning permission granted for up to 2,000 new homes. Over 700 units have been completed, and phases six to eleven, consisting of 935 units, have commenced.
Northwich
- Winnington urban village – planning permission granted for 1,200 new homes. Over 1,000 new homes have been completed, and the final phase (181 homes) has commenced and stalled.
- Wincham urban village – Planning permission granted for 60 new homes. Site/ phase complete.
Winsford
- Station Quarter urban extension – planning permission granted for Phase 1 (215 units), 110 units have been completed, and 103 units are not started. Two remaining sites/phases for in the region of 700 units do not have planning permission.
The Winsford neighbourhood Plan identifies a range of smaller site allocations to deliver the Local Plan housing requirement and they are monitored in the Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report.
Source: 2025 Annual Monitoring Report and Housing Land Monitor 2026
Overall housing delivery compared to the adopted housing requirement
The Local Plan (Part One) sets out a housing requirement of 22,000 new homes to be delivered between 2010 and 2030. This equates to an annual average of 1,100 new homes per year.
Based on the annual average (1,100 homes) the housing requirement for the period 2010 to 2026 would be 17,600 net new homes. The total number of new homes completed in this period is 22,862 (net), which is over 5,000 new homes above the requirement.
The annual average level of housing delivery since the base date of the Local Plan (Part One) is 1,429 new homes.
Source: Housing Land Monitor 2026
Affordable housing delivery compared to previously assessed need (that informed the adopted plan)
Local Plan (Part One) policy SOC 1 sets out a target of achieving up to 30 per cent affordable homes on market schemes to address some of this shortfall. If this target was achieved, approximately 6,600 affordable homes could be provided (as a proportion of the total 22,000 new dwellings in the Local Plan).
Affordable housing delivery, monitored as a gross figure, ranges between 159 new homes completed in 2013-2014 to 633 new homes delivered in 2017-2018.
At 1 April 2026, a total of 6,009 new affordable homes had been delivered. To achieve the target of 6,600 homes, a further 590 homes (148 per year) will need to be delivered by the end of the plan period. Based on an annual delivery rate of 375 new homes per year, this target should be achieved.
As a percentage of the total gross new homes delivered each year, over the plan period, affordable homes make up 25% of completions. The annual percentage of affordable homes delivered ranges between 15% and 45% based on the type of sites that have been granted planning permission. Rural exception sites for example may include a much higher proportion of affordable homes when compared with a windfall site in a settlement.
Source: Annual Monitoring Report 2025 and Housing Land Monitor 2026
Specialist housing delivery - older persons and student accommodation
Local Plan (Part One) policy SOC 3 makes provision for the delivery of a mix of housing types, tenures and sizes, including housing for the elderly and for student accommodation, to support the delivery of balanced and sustainable communities in the borough.
Housing for older people
The delivery of smaller homes including one and two bed flats, and bungalows, for older people is included in the general housing monitor and the Annual Monitoring Report sets out the mix and type of new homes delivered annually. In addition, the number of new specialist accommodation units (both self-contained and communal) are recorded.
Since the base date of the Local Plan, 1.,026 new self-contained specialist accommodation units have been delivered. This includes housing options of the over-55s, older people with care needs, and supported livening opportunities. An additional 397 bedspaces have been delivered in new care homes and extensions to existing facilities.
Student accommodation
Between 2015 and 2020 the number of planning applications received for new purpose-built student accommodation in the city of Chester increased significantly. Delivery of new student accommodation peaked in 2018, with 350 new units being completed. A total of 976 new self-contained purpose-built student units were completed between 2010 and 2020, and a further 204 communal bedspaces in shared accommodation were completed. Since 2020, no new purpose-built student accommodation units have been approved or completed.
Source: Annual Monitoring Report 2025 and Housing Land Monitor 2026
Gypsy and Traveller plot delivery
Since the base date of the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment 2014, a total of 38 permanent pitches have been approved and an additional 30 pitches have been provided across two Council owned sites (Barlow Drive in Winsford and Rossfield Road in Ellesmere Port). Twelve transit pitches were also permissioned in this period.
There is one travelling showpersons sites in the borough that provides 13 plots.
Source: Annual Monitoring Report 2025 and Housing Land Monitor 2026
Change to the median workplace-based housing affordability ratio
The housing affordability ratio for the borough uses the ration of house prices to workplace-based earnings. The ratio has decreased by approximately 0.6, from 7.56 in 2021 to 6.93 in 2025.
Cheshire West and Chester has a slightly better affordability ratio when compared with England as a whole (7.55), however the borough is less affordable when compared with the North West regional average of 5.92.
The current five-year average ratio for Cheshire West and Chester is 7.30
Source: ONS Table 5c - Ratio of house price to workplace-based earnings
The potential future picture of Cheshire West and Chester
Local Housing Need, calculated using the standard method
The Government’s standard method currently indicates that the Local Plan should provide for 1,930 new homes each year. Over a 10-year plan period this would be 19,300 homes (or 28,950 homes over 15 years).
Current housing monitoring information shows undeveloped sites with planning permission in the region of 4,120 new homes. The Land Availability Assessment (Stage One) identifies previously developed sites without planning permission that may have capacity for in the region of 5,300 homes, and mixed sites (that include an element of previously developed land) that may have the capacity in the region of 2,400 homes.
Source: Dwelling stock - GOV.UK and Median workplace-based affordability ratios.