What is a SHLAA? The council’s map of where homes could go

 

If you own a field, a paddock, a large garden or an old yard and you have ever wondered whether it might one day become housing, a SHLAA or land availability assessment is one of the first places worth checking. SHLAA stands for Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. It is an evidence document which identifies and assesses potential land for housing; it does not itself decide whether a site will be allocated or granted planning permission.

In plain terms, it is the council’s big stocktake of land. The local housing need and standard method asks how many homes are needed; the SHLAA asks where homes could realistically go. That means looking at every scrap of land that might be suitable, available and realistic to build on.

This page explains what a SHLAA is for, how a council puts one together, what it means if your land is in it or missing from it, and, just as importantly, what it does not do. Being in a SHLAA is not planning permission, and it is not a promise, so it helps to know exactly what you are looking at.

 

What a SHLAA is actually for

 

A SHLAA does one job: it identifies a future supply of land that could take housing and economic development over the years the council is planning for. It gathers the sites, weighs up whether each one could realistically be built on, and sets out how much development the area could hold and roughly when.

It matters because it feeds the bigger decisions. The evidence in a SHLAA is what a council leans on when it writes its local plan, when it decides how much land to set aside for homes, and when it has to show it has a rolling supply of housing land. Our guide to the five year housing land supply explains that last part, which is the one most likely to affect an ordinary planning application.

One thing to hold on to from the start: a SHLAA does not decide anything by itself. It tells the council what land is out there. It is the local plan, not the SHLAA, that then chooses which of those sites are actually set aside for building.

 

You may see it called a SHELAA or HELAA

 

The name has drifted over the years, and different councils use slightly different versions, which is confusing when you are trying to find yours.

The older, most widely recognised housing term is SHLAA, the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. Many authorities now carry out a broader assessment which also looks at economic development land, often called a SHELAA or HELAA (Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment). The Government’s guidance uses the broader description “housing and economic land availability assessment”.

The names therefore belong to the same land-availability family, but the scope is not always identical. If your council’s website does not list a SHLAA, search for HELAA, SHELAA or land availability assessment instead.

 

How councils assess land under the 2026 plan system

 

The familiar SHLAA, SHELAA and HELAA names will continue to appear, but the current guidance for the new local-plan system now separates the site work into four stages rather than the older five-stage assessment.

Stage 1: identify sites. The council reviews maps, records, brownfield information and other evidence, and runs a call for sites. Landowners, developers, public bodies and members of the public can put land forward. Being promoted or assessed does not give planning permission, but it can affect expectations about planning uplift and land value. If land is not identified in that round it may not be assessed for allocation, although that does not prevent a later promotion or a planning application on its own merits.

Stage 2: assess the sites. The authority categorises the land and considers suitability, availability, achievability and development potential. Clearly unsuitable sites can be filtered out, while the remaining sites are tested against constraints, ownership, infrastructure, viability and realistic delivery.

Stage 3: determine draft allocations. Assessment does not automatically lead to allocation. The authority decides which sites best fit its proposed vision and spatial strategy, taking account of matters such as settlements, transport, infrastructure, environmental effects, efficient use of land and likely delivery. The current Stage 3 guidance explains this selection exercise.

Stage 4: confirm and record the choices. Draft allocations are refined through evidence, engagement and consultation, and the authority records why sites were selected or rejected. The result becomes part of the evidence supporting the proposed Local Plan.

Some authorities are still preparing plans under the legacy system and may continue to use the older land-availability guidance and five-stage terminology. Always check which plan-making system the council is using before treating a stage name or timetable as universal.

 

What “suitable, available and achievable” really means for your land

 

These three words decide everything, so they are worth understanding in your own terms.

• Suitable asks whether it is a sensible spot to build, given what surrounds it and any constraints on it. A field wrapped in flood zone 3 or deep in the Green Belt has a hard time here
• Available asks whether the land can actually come forward, with a willing owner and no ownership tangle, ransom strip or tenancy blocking it
• Achievable asks whether building it would realistically pay, because a site that cannot be developed viably will not deliver homes however suitable it looks on a map

Suitability, availability and achievability are central to whether a site may be deliverable or developable, but they are not the whole five-year-supply test. The current NPPF definition also distinguishes sites which can normally be treated as deliverable from larger outline permissions, allocations, permission-in-principle sites and brownfield-register sites where clear delivery evidence is required. A developable site has a reasonable prospect of being available and viably developed at the point envisaged over the longer plan period.

 

Is a SHLAA legally binding? No, and this catches people out

 

This is the single most important thing to take away, because a lot of hope and a lot of worry rests on a misunderstanding of it.

Being in a SHLAA is not planning permission. It does not allocate your land for housing, it does not commit the council to anything, and it does not guarantee you will ever get to build. All it means is that your land has been logged as a candidate the council will consider.

The flip side is just as true. If a developer waves a SHLAA at you and says your neighbouring field is “identified for housing”, that is not the same as it being allocated in the local plan, still less that permission is a formality. And if your own land is left out, that is a setback but not the end of the road, because you can put it forward at the next call for sites or through a planning application on its own merits.

 

How to get your land into a SHLAA

 

If you would like your land considered, the route in is the call for sites. Councils run these periodically, usually when they are preparing or reviewing their local plan, and they publicise them on their planning policy pages.

When you submit, you will normally be asked for the site’s location and boundary, what you think could be built there, the scale of it, and any constraints you already know about. Getting the boundary and the access right matters, because a site the council cannot see a way into will struggle at stage two. Land that is not put forward, and not spotted by the council’s own trawl, simply is not assessed, so the deadline is worth watching.

 

What it costs

 

Putting a site forward in a call for sites is normally free; the council is asking for the land, so it does not charge you to offer it. Some councils use an online portal, some a simple form, and a few ask for supporting plans, which is where a drawing or a planning consultant can help but is not required.

The cost comes later, if and when you decide to actually apply for permission on the land. That is a separate step with its own fee, and being in a SHLAA gives you no discount and no shortcut. See our guide to planning application fees for what that stage involves.

 

If your site is left out, or refused later

 

A SHLAA has no appeal of its own, because it decides nothing you can appeal against; it is evidence, not a decision. If your land is left out, the practical answers are to resubmit at the next call for sites, to make representations when the local plan is consulted on, or to apply for planning permission on the land’s own merits regardless.

If you do apply and are refused, that refusal can be appealed in the normal way. Our guide to planning appeals explains how, and what your chances realistically are.

 

Where a SHLAA fits with everything else

 

A SHLAA is one piece of the housing supply picture. It sits alongside the council’s assessment of how many homes are needed and its running stock of land, and it feeds directly into whether the council can show a five year housing land supply. For the wider context of how councils plan for homes, see our housing and planning section.

 

 

Relevant guidance behind a SHLAA

 

A SHLAA or HELAA is an evidence exercise shaped by national policy and guidance rather than a permission created by one Act of Parliament. The correct guidance depends on whether the authority is using the new 2026 local-plan system or the legacy system.

• Stage 1: identifying sites, including calls for sites under the new plan system
• Stage 2: assessing sites, including suitability, availability, achievability and development potential
• Stage 3: determining draft allocations, where assessed land is considered against the proposed strategy
• National Planning Policy Framework, August 2026, including current deliverability and housing-land-supply policy
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the statutory framework for local plans

 

Other Housing Sections

 

 

SHLAA Page Updated: 24th August 2026