The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is part of the evidence base for the Stockton-on-Tees Local Development Framework. It does not allocate sites for housing, but uses a methodology to assess sites to provide evidence for future Local Development Framework (LDF) documents. In particular the SHLAA is relevant to the Core Strategy Development Plan Document (DPD) and the Regeneration DPD. The Core Strategy DPD will set out how the Council proposes to distribute and phase new housing provision in general. The Regeneration DPD will allocate specific sites that are consistent with this approach.
Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) introduced a new approach to planning for housing, which requires Local Planning Authorities to demonstrate a 15-year supply of housing land from the date of the adoption of the relevant local development document. In the case of Stockton-on-Tees the relevant document is the Core Strategy DPD. This is scheduled for adoption in 2009 which means that the time frame for the study has extended to 2024. The Stockton-on-Tees SHLAA is a technical study required by PPS3 to support the new approach.
The broad methodology for the SHLAA is set out in the National Practice Guidance. You can follow the link on the left of this page to find out more about the National Practice Guidance. This requires potential housing sites to be tested according to a framework of:
- Suitability (is the site a suitable location for housing?),
- Availability (is it available now or is there a reasonable prospect of it becoming available?); and
- Achievability (is there a reasonable prospect of housing being achieved on the site?).
You can download the current Stockton Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment at the end of this page. These are very large documents due to the number of detailed maps they contain. If you are unable to download the documents please contact us and we will provide you with a CD.
