Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment

The Winchester District Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) November 2011 update was approved for publication at the Council's Cabinet (Local Development Framework) Committee meeting on 10 November 2011 and a copy can be viewed by downloading the documents at the bottom of this webpage.
Alternatively, a copy of the document can be viewed at our Customer Service Centre in Colebrook Street, Winchester (Open Monday to Thursday 8.30am - 5.00pm, Fridays 8.30am - 4.30pm). This document forms part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework.

Winchester City Council must stress that the SHLAA is not a document that allocates these sites for development nor does it give them any new planning status. For land outside settlement boundaries, it is simply a map of the sites that have been put forward by people who think that they would be suitable for development in the future. This does not mean that the City Council agrees. We will look at each and decide if it is suitable or not based on a wide range of planning policy criteria. That process will involve further public consultation.

Sites which are outside settlement boundaries defined in the Winchester District Local Plan remain subject to countryside policies. The fact that they are identified in the SHLAA does not change that.

The SHLAA will inform the development of the Core Strategy and Development Management and Allocations documents of the Local Development Framework

Any future housing allocations which may be needed will be made through the LDF Core Strategy (for 'strategic' sites) and the Development Management and Allocations document (for smaller sites). Work on the Core Strategy is underway and the recent 'Blueprint' consultation will inform the Core Strategy ; initial consultation on issues for the Development Management and Allocations document is due to start in 2012.

What is a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA)?

The Winchester City Council Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) considers how much housing land could potentially come forward within the District over the next 15 years. It is an important part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework as it identifies housing sites which are potentially developable and deliverable within the urban areas of the District.

However it is important to understand that the SHLAA is not a document which allocates sites for development and nor does the identification of a site within the SHLAA guarantee that planning permission will be granted on that site. Instead, the SHLAA is an evidence base document which will inform the development of the Core Strategy and Development Management and Allocations documents of the Local Development Framework.

What has happened so far with Winchester's SHLAA?

A draft SHLAA was published for consultation in April 2009. A copy of the draft SHLAA can be downloaded using this link to the draft report . The draft SHLAA estimated how much housing could potentially be developed within existing built up areas; this was added to the number of houses that had been permitted through planning permissions and an allowance for small sites which would not otherwise be counted in the SHLAA. This still left a shortfall of almost 6,000 dwellings needed to meet the minimum housing requirement of 12,740 dwellings allocated to Winchester District in the South East Plan over the 20 year Plan period.

Following comments made through the consultation on the draft SHLAA, officers made recommendations to Cabinet on the 14 th October which included a recommendation to: - discard some sites or change the estimate of their housing potential; remove the small sites allowance; and to look at sites outside the urban areas (greenfield sites).

The draft SHLAA was also used to assess whether any Local Reserve Sites needed to be released and a separate document was published for consultation detailing this assessment. Following the recommended amendments to the SHLAA, a recommendation to amend the Local Reserve Sites assessment was also made at the Cabinet Meeting on the 14 October 2009 to account for the reduction in the estimated potential housing sites.

Councillors decided at the Cabinet Meeting on the 14 October that the SHLAA should be extended to look at greenfield sites adjacent to settlements which may potentially be allocated for housing development and that this information should be reported back early in 2010. In addition, the Council's Leader wrote to the Minister for Housing and Planning to question the way in which Government guidance requires the calculation of land availability to be undertaken. Councillor Beckett's letter to the Minister for Housing and Planning can be read on our website using this link .

The SHLAA was then published in March 2010.

An update to the SHLAA was published in December 2010. This has now been superceded but can still be viewed at the bottom of this page.

The current SHLAA update (November 2011) can be viewed at the bottom of this page.

How can I view a copy of the latest SHLAA document?

The December 2011 SHLAA is now published and you can download the final documents using the links at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, a paper copy of the SHLAA is available to view at our Customer Service Centre in Colebrook Street, Winchester (Open Monday to Thursday 8.30am - 5.00pm, Fridays 8.30am - 4.30pm).

Can I submit new sites to be considered in the SHLAA?

The SHLAA is an evidence study which is likely to be updated each year to account for changes to existing sites and identify new sites. The cut off date for sites to be submitted for the SHLAA to be published in November 2011 was 01 July 2011. If you do want to submit a site, please use the site submission form which you can download at the bottom of this page and it will be considered as part of the 2012 update.

The deadline for returning site submission forms to us to consider in the annual review of the SHLAA for this year is 29 June 2012.