Strategic Housing & Employment Land Availability
The Council are preparing a new Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment ('SHELAA') and is now inviting submissions to the 'call for sites' which will run from Wednesday 25th June 2025 to Tuesday 16th September 2025.. All sites previously submitted to the SHELAA will need to be re-submitted and landowners will be contacted in due course.
What is a SHELAA?
The Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) identifies and assesses potential sites for new housing and employment development. As a result, it is an important element of the evidence base informing the development of a new Local Plan.
The study itself does not, however, decide policy or which sites should or should not be developed, as these decisions will be made through the Local Plan process. The SHELAA contributes to an understanding of the potential availability of land in the district and may be drawn on as part of future Local Plan work. The assessments will be undertaken in line national planning policy.
SHELAA Methodology
The Council approved a new SHELAA Methodology on 10th June 2025, following a consultation between 7th April 2025 to 19th May 2025. As a result of this consultation, changes were made to the SHELAA Methodology which have been incorporated into the final version of the Methodology document.
The approved methodology can be viewed below:
Call for Sites Consultation
As part of work on the New Local Plan, we are now undertaking a call for sites consultation. This consultation will run from Wednesday 25th June 2025 to Tuesday 16th September 2025.
If you would like to submit land for consideration or would like more information, please use our dedicated 'Call for Sites' page.