Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment

The Council has prepared a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) as required by Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing to identify sites with the potential to accommodate future housing development within the District in the next 15 years. It is a technical study and the Assessment has been carried out in accordance with the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Practice Guidance (July 2007).

The Council has worked closely with key stakeholders from early in the SHLAA process. A SHLAA Panel involving key housing stakeholders (including house builders, social landlords and local property agents) was established and functioned as the Housing Market Partnership to provide input into the SHLAA preparation. The Council thanks the SHLAA Panel members for their invaluable input throughout the process.

The SHLAA has now been completed and it has identified a potential housing supply of 2,328 dwellings over the plan period to 2026 - a surplus of 448 dwellings over the South East Plan requirement for South Bucks of 1,880 dwellings. The Assessment also demonstrated that South Bucks is currently in a healthy housing land supply position, with more than 10 years supply of deliverable sites.

It is important to stress that while the SHLAA is a key evidence which will inform plan-making, it does not itself determine whether a site should be allocated for housing development. The process of allocating sites will be undertaken through the Core Strategy Development Plan Document (DPD) and any future Site Allocations DPD. Sites identified through the SHLAA will not necessarily be allocated and will still be subject to the usual planning process should an application be submitted.

The identification of potential housing sites, buildings or areas within the SHLAA indicates that they are likely to be suitable, in principle, for residential development. However, inclusion in the SHLAA does not guarantee that the Council will grant planning permission for residential development on such sites. Planning applications will continue to be treated on their own merits at the time of the planning application.

A Housing Implementation Strategy is also produced which sets out the Council's approach to managing delivery of the housing and previously-developed land targets and trajectories.