Local Planning Authorities are required under national planning policy, Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3), to carry out a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) in order to assess future sources of land for housing.

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• Document - SHLAA Site Assesment Form in pdf* format (148kb)
• Document - SHLAA Concept Paper and Guidance in pdf* format (83kb)
• Document - SHLAA Contact List in pdf* format (19kb)

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The primary function of the SHLAA is to:

• identify sites with potential for housing
• assess how much housing potential the site has; and
• assess when the site is likely to be developed

The SHLAA will form part of the evidence base, along with other information, to inform decisions in plan making, including future allocations within Local Development Framework documents.

Methodology & Partnership Working

The Tyne & Wear SHLAA Partnership of local planning authorities, developers and other relevant agencies have agreed to work to a common methodology to undertake the SHLAAs. This methodology reflects the Government’s guidance detailed in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments Practice Guide (July 2007), as supplemented by the North East England Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment Regional Implementation Guide (prepared by the North East Assembly, March 2008), and the Tyne & Wear  Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) Sub-Regional Addendum Concept Paper and Supplementary Guidance (July 2008).

Site Submissions

The Partnership would now like to invite landowners, developers, planning agents and local stakeholders to submit details of sites for consideration as potential housing development opportunities for inclusion within the SHLAA. You are invited to submit new sites that you, or your client(s), believe may be suitable for housing, and which:

• you anticipate would be brought forward in the short (1-5 years) andmedium-term (6-15 years). These would be sites in addition to those that already have planning permission for housing or are allocated in development plans;

• you consider could be redeveloped within the next 15 years; 

Please do not submit sites that:

•  already have planning permission for development, unless a new and  significantly different proposal is likely in the future;
• have previously been submitted for consideration as part of consultation on  Local Development Framework documents (or Gateshead’s Unitary Development Plan) – these sites will automatically be included in the SHLAA;
• are outside the Tyne & Wear sub-region (the districts of Gateshead,  Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland) Sites should be submitted for consideration by completing a Site Assessment Form. A separate form should be completed for each site and submitted along with a 1:1250 site location plan clearly highlighting the boundaries. Completed forms should be returned to the relevant local authority in which the site is situated.

Please return completed forms by no later than 17th October 2008. The  relevant local authority SHLAA web pages are listed below:

• Gateshead MBC
• Newcastle CC
• North Tyneside MBC
• South Tyneside MBC
• Sunderland CC “Sunderland council has recently completed a separate final call for sites as part of its own SHLAA preparation that began in late 2007. All sites submitted for this have been included on the Sunderland sites database for consideration. Therefore, for Sunderland, please only submit any new sites in response to this Tyne and Wear SHLAA sites call.”