Important Definitions
Housing Need, Housing Requirement and Delivery Are Different
The expression “housing target” is widely used, but several distinct figures sit behind it. Understanding the difference prevents Local Plan, supply and delivery evidence from being confused.
Local Housing Need
Local housing need is the minimum annual figure produced by the national standard method, unless a justified alternative approach applies in specific circumstances.
It is an unconstrained assessment of need and does not itself decide how many homes the adopted plan will provide.
Housing Requirement
The housing requirement is the minimum number of homes the development plan seeks to provide over the plan period. It follows assessment of need, land availability, constraints, unmet need and the strategy selected through plan-making.
It may be higher than the standard-method figure where the authority plans for additional growth.
Supply and Delivery
Five-year housing land supply asks whether enough deliverable sites exist looking forward. The Housing Delivery Test asks whether enough homes were actually delivered looking backwards.
Neither calculation is the same as the standard-method assessment of housing need.
A council can have a high local housing need, a different adopted housing requirement, a five-year supply shortfall and a Housing Delivery Test result—all at the same time. Each figure answers a different question.
Current Policy Position
The National Position as at 11 August 2026
The December 2024 standard method remains the operative calculation, while a later draft NPPF consultation has not yet replaced the current framework.
The operational National Planning Policy Framework was published on 12 December 2024 and amended on 7 February 2025. It expects strategic policy-making authorities to assess housing need using the standard method in national planning practice guidance, subject to limited circumstances where an alternative approach can be justified.
The standard method was revised in December 2024. It now uses a baseline equal to 0.8% of the authority’s existing housing stock and then applies an affordability adjustment based on the five-year average of the median workplace-based affordability ratio.
A further draft NPPF was consulted upon from December 2025 to March 2026. It proposed extensive changes to national planning policy, but draft proposals should not be treated as adopted policy unless and until a final replacement framework is published.
England is also transitioning to a new Local Plan system. During 2026 the legacy and new plan-making systems operate concurrently, with 31 December 2026 being the final date for submission under the legacy regulations. New-system plans use a 30-month preparation process beginning at Gateway 1 and proceed through three gateways before examination and adoption. The applicable process therefore depends on the council’s published timetable and transition position. Landowners should identify which system applies before interpreting consultation stages, examination language or expected site-selection dates.
Housing figures can change because the input data are updated. Dwelling-stock estimates are generally published annually, usually in May, and affordability ratios annually, usually in March. Local authorities should keep their housing-need calculation under review during plan-making.
This page explains the current national method. For a particular authority, use the latest published dwelling-stock and affordability inputs and then check the council’s adopted or emerging housing requirement.
The Standard Method
How the Minimum Annual Local Housing Need Figure Is Calculated
The current method contains two principal steps. It produces a minimum annual need figure rather than an adopted Local Plan requirement.
Find Existing Housing Stock
Use the most recent published dwelling-stock figure for the local authority area, including vacant dwellings where the official table provides them.
Calculate the 0.8% Baseline
Multiply the housing-stock figure by 0.008. This ensures every area contributes a baseline proportionate to the size of its existing housing market.
Calculate Affordability
Use the mean average of the five most recent median workplace-based affordability ratios. No uplift applies where the average ratio is 5 or below.
Apply the Adjustment
Where the ratio exceeds 5, apply the national formula and multiply the housing-stock baseline by the resulting adjustment factor.
The standard method is deliberately formula-based. It does not attempt to allocate sites, test Green Belt, assess infrastructure capacity or determine whether the resulting homes can all be accommodated within the authority.
Worked Example
A Simplified Standard-Method Calculation
This example illustrates the mechanics using rounded hypothetical figures. It is not a calculation for any particular council.
| Stage | Calculation | Illustrative Result |
|---|---|---|
| Existing housing stock | Assume the authority has 80,000 dwellings in the latest published stock table. | 80,000 dwellings |
| Baseline | 80,000 × 0.8%. | 640 homes per year |
| Five-year average affordability ratio | Assume the average workplace-based affordability ratio is 8. | Ratio of 8 |
| Adjustment factor | ((8 − 5) ÷ 5) × 0.95 + 1. | 1.57 |
| Minimum annual local housing need | 640 × 1.57. | Approximately 1,005 homes per year |
Where the five-year average affordability ratio is 5 or below, no affordability uplift is applied. Where it is higher, the uplift increases progressively as affordability worsens.
Why These Inputs Are Used
Housing Stock and Affordability Serve Different Purposes
The method combines a stable baseline with a price signal intended to direct more homes towards less affordable areas.
Existing housing stock creates a consistent baseline. Larger housing markets begin with a larger absolute figure, while every authority contributes at least 0.8% of its stock before any affordability adjustment is applied.
The affordability ratio compares workplace earnings with house prices. A higher ratio indicates that homes cost more in relation to local earnings. The uplift is intended to respond to that pressure and support the national objective of significantly increasing housing supply.
The method uses a five-year average rather than one annual ratio. This reduces the effect of a single unusual year, although the figure can still change when new data replace the oldest year in the average.
The output is not a forecast of exactly how many households will form or exactly how many homes the market will build. It is a policy method for establishing the minimum number of homes that authorities are expected to plan for at the need-assessment stage.
It is also not a site-capacity exercise. An authority with a high need figure may still need to test urban capacity, brownfield land, settlement growth, infrastructure, environmental constraints and cooperation with neighbouring areas before setting its spatial strategy.
Housing need is deliberately assessed before constraints. The Local Plan process then decides how that need should be translated into a deliverable requirement and distribution of growth.
From Need to Requirement
How a Council Sets Its Local Plan Housing Requirement
After the standard method establishes need, the authority must determine the amount and distribution of housing that the plan will seek to provide.
The authority reviews land availability, settlement capacity, infrastructure, environmental designations, Green Belt, flood risk, landscape, heritage and other constraints. It should also consider whether neighbouring areas are unable to meet their own need and whether some unmet need must be accommodated.
A housing requirement can be higher than the local housing need figure. An authority may plan for additional economic growth, regeneration, affordable housing, strategic infrastructure or other policy ambitions that justify more homes.
Where an authority proposes to provide less than the assessed need within its own area, that position requires robust evidence and strategic cooperation. The examination route now depends on the plan’s transition status. A legacy plan submitted by the end of 2026 is examined for legal compliance and soundness under the established system. A plan prepared under the new system follows the 30-month process, three gateways and the new examination procedure. In either case, the housing strategy must be supported by evidence and a credible route to delivery.
The total requirement is then translated into a trajectory across the plan period. Strategic policies should generally look ahead over at least fifteen years from adoption, although the exact distribution can involve annual averages, stepped requirements or strategic phasing.
The adopted requirement becomes important for monitoring, five-year supply and, depending on the relevant rules, the Housing Delivery Test. Emerging plan figures can also affect how much land is sought through Calls for Sites and how candidate sites are assessed.
Evidence Commonly Considered
Urban and Brownfield Capacity
What can be delivered within existing settlements and on previously developed land.
Land Availability
The scale, location, suitability, availability and achievability of candidate sites.
Infrastructure
Schools, healthcare, transport, utilities, drainage and strategic investment.
Environmental Constraints
Green Belt, flood risk, landscape, ecology, heritage and agricultural land.
Neighbouring Needs
Whether unmet need should be redistributed through strategic planning arrangements.
Economic and Affordable Housing
Whether additional housing is needed to support jobs, regeneration or particular tenures.
The standard-method figure is the starting point for need. The housing requirement is a plan-making outcome that should be supported by evidence and sufficient sites.
Housing Mix and Tenure
The Headline Number Is Not the Whole Housing Need
Councils also assess which homes are needed, not only the total number.
Affordable Housing
Evidence should assess the need for affordable housing, including the scale and types of provision required. Policy then determines how qualifying development contributes.
Affordable housing need does not simply replace the standard-method total; it informs tenure and delivery within the broader housing strategy.
Different Household Groups
Plans should consider older people, families, students, people with disabilities, those who rent, self-builders, travellers and other groups with specific housing requirements.
The evidence can influence size, accessibility, tenure, location and specialist accommodation.
Dwelling Type and Density
Need evidence and local character influence the balance of houses, flats, smaller units and larger family homes.
Density policy also affects how much land is required to meet the overall housing requirement.
Employment and Economic Growth
Housing can support labour supply and economic strategy. Authorities may consider planning above minimum need where growth ambitions justify it.
Employment land, transport investment and housing distribution should therefore be coordinated.
Older Persons and Specialist Housing
Specialist housing may contribute to the overall supply while meeting particular care, accessibility or support needs.
The way communal accommodation is counted can differ between planning evidence, supply and delivery monitoring.
Self-Build and Custom Build
Authorities maintain registers and should consider demand for serviced plots as part of their housing strategy.
Suitable land may therefore support a broader mix than conventional market housing alone.
A site can be valuable to a Local Plan because it helps deliver the right type, tenure or location of housing—not only because it adds to the raw unit total.
Land Requirement
How Housing Numbers Create a Need for Development Sites
Once the housing requirement is established, councils must identify a supply of land capable of delivering it over the plan period.
The council cannot convert a housing number into acreage using one fixed density. Urban land, town-centre sites, suburban extensions, villages and strategic settlements can support very different densities and housing mixes.
Gross site area is not the same as net residential area. Roads, drainage, landscape buffers, biodiversity, open space, schools, utilities and other infrastructure reduce the land available for homes. Constraints can also reduce capacity below an initial desktop estimate.
The plan should contain a mix of sites and maintain flexibility. Heavy reliance on a few large strategic allocations can create delivery risk if infrastructure, land assembly or technical work is delayed. Small and medium sites may help diversify the trajectory and produce homes earlier.
Windfall development can contribute where there is compelling evidence that it will provide a reliable source of supply. However, the assumptions should reflect historic delivery and avoid double counting land already included elsewhere.
Councils therefore use Calls for Sites, HELAA or SHLAA work, brownfield registers, urban-capacity studies and site-selection processes to identify options. A high or increasing housing requirement can make additional well-located land more important.
A council may need substantially more gross land than a simple homes-per-acre calculation suggests because not every submitted site will be selected and not every allocated hectare will be developable.
Monitoring the Strategy
How Need, Supply and Delivery Interact
After the plan sets the requirement, separate monitoring tools test whether enough suitable land exists and whether homes are being completed.
Five-Year Housing Land Supply
This is a forward-looking assessment of whether the authority has enough deliverable housing sites against the applicable requirement or need figure.
A shortfall can affect decision-making and the weight given to relevant policies.
Housing Delivery Test
This is a backward-looking comparison of homes delivered with homes required over the relevant rolling period.
Under-delivery can trigger an action plan, a supply buffer and, at the lowest threshold, the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
Local Plan Review
The authority should keep policies and evidence under review. Updated need, delayed allocations or infrastructure change may require additional land or a revised distribution.
Landowners should monitor plan timetables and consultation stages rather than relying only on the adopted plan.
A sound Local Plan is not the end of the process. Housing need data, site delivery and policy circumstances continue to change, which can create new planning opportunities or expose weaknesses in the existing strategy.
Landowner Implications
What a Higher or Changing Housing Figure Can Mean for Land
An increased need figure does not allocate land automatically, but it can alter the scale of the planning challenge and the authority’s search for sites.
Where the existing plan does not provide enough homes to meet the updated need, the council may need to review its strategy, expand settlements, identify new growth areas or reconsider land previously rejected.
The strongest opportunities are generally well-related to existing settlements, capable of safe access and able to address flood risk, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage and infrastructure. A numerical shortfall does not remove those requirements.
Timing matters. A landowner who waits until preferred allocations are published may have missed earlier Call for Sites, evidence-gathering and consultation opportunities. Promotion should begin when the evidence base and spatial options are being formed.
A site submission should not rely only on the headline housing figure. It should explain how the land helps meet need in a sustainable location, whether it is available, what capacity it can support, which constraints have been reviewed and how development could be delivered.
Housing figures also affect valuation indirectly. A stronger policy need can improve planning prospects, but value depends on whether the site can secure an acceptable permission and deliver homes after infrastructure, affordable housing, conditions and abnormal costs are considered.
Signals Worth Monitoring
Updated Standard-Method Figure
A material increase may alter the scale of land required in the next plan.
Local Plan Timetable
Issues, options, preferred strategy and submission stages create different opportunities.
Call for Sites
The formal opportunity to put land into the council’s evidence and assessment process.
HELAA or SHLAA Results
Shows how the authority has assessed suitability, availability, achievability and capacity.
Five-Year Supply Position
Can reveal immediate decision-making pressure outside the longer-term plan review.
Housing Delivery Test
Can show whether the adopted strategy is producing completed homes at the required rate.
Housing need creates strategic pressure, but a landowner still needs a credible site-specific case. Numbers and site evidence should be presented together.
Promotion Strategy
How to Respond to Emerging Housing Requirements
A proportionate promotion strategy can place land in the evidence base before spatial decisions are fixed.
Confirm the Relevant Figures
Identify the latest standard-method need, adopted requirement, emerging plan figure, five-year supply position and Housing Delivery Test result.
Review the Site
Assess settlement relationship, access, flood risk, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage, utilities and indicative capacity.
Submit and Represent
Respond to Calls for Sites and consultations with a clear planning case, accurate boundary, availability evidence and proportionate technical support.
Maintain Deliverability
Update evidence, address council concerns and show that the site can progress within the plan period rather than remaining a theoretical option.
The objective is to show not merely that more homes are needed, but that this particular land represents a suitable, available, achievable and strategically sensible way to help meet that need.
Free Initial Development Review
Find Out Whether Changing Housing Requirements May Create an Opportunity for Your Land
Send us the location and approximate boundary of your land. We can review the relevant authority, Local Plan stage, housing evidence and the principal site constraints.
You do not need an allocation or complete technical file before contacting us. A postcode, map pin, what3words reference or site plan is normally enough for the first review.
Related Guides
These guides distinguish housing need from supply, delivery, plan-making and site selection, helping landowners understand where a numerical requirement fits within the wider planning process.
What Is the Housing Delivery Test?
Understand how completed homes are measured against the housing requirement and what under-delivery can mean.
Click hereWhat Is a 5-Year Housing Land Supply?
Learn how councils assess whether enough deliverable housing sites exist for the next five years.
Click hereTilted Balance Planning Guide
See when the presumption in favour of sustainable development may affect planning decisions.
Click hereLocal Plan Allocation Guide
Find out how housing requirements are translated into site-selection and allocation decisions.
Click hereCall for Sites Guide
Understand how and when land can be submitted for consideration during plan-making.
Click hereWhat Is a HELAA or SHLAA?
Learn how candidate sites are assessed for suitability, availability, achievability and capacity.
Click herePlanning Policy and Development Land
Review how national policy, Local Plans and evidence affect development prospects.
Click hereNeighbourhood Plans and Development Land
Understand how neighbourhood planning can influence local housing, allocations and development decisions.
Click hereSustainable, Available and Achievable Sites
See the key tests used to identify credible land for the housing strategy.
Click hereFrequently Asked Questions About Housing Need and Housing Targets
What is local housing need?
Local housing need is the minimum annual number of homes identified through the national standard method, unless a justified alternative approach applies in specific circumstances. It is an unconstrained assessment used to inform strategic plan-making.
It is not automatically the same as the adopted Local Plan housing requirement.
What is a housing requirement?
The housing requirement is the minimum number of homes that the development plan seeks to provide over its plan period. It is set after considering assessed need, land availability, constraints, unmet need and the chosen growth strategy.
It can be higher than the standard-method need figure.
How is the current standard method calculated?
The method starts with 0.8% of the authority’s latest housing stock. It then applies an affordability adjustment using the five-year average of the median workplace-based affordability ratio.
No uplift applies where the average ratio is 5 or below.
What is the affordability formula?
Where the five-year average affordability ratio is above 5, the adjustment factor is: ((ratio minus 5) divided by 5) multiplied by 0.95, plus 1. The housing-stock baseline is multiplied by that factor.
The calculation should use the latest official input data.
Why is housing stock used instead of household projections?
The current method uses housing stock to provide a stable baseline proportional to the size of each authority’s existing housing market. The affordability adjustment then directs a larger uplift to areas where house prices are high relative to workplace earnings.
This approach was introduced in December 2024.
Does the standard method produce the final housing target?
No. It produces the minimum annual local housing need figure. The Local Plan process then determines the housing requirement and spatial strategy after considering land, constraints, infrastructure and strategic matters.
“Housing target” is often used informally to describe one of these different figures.
Can a council plan for more homes than the standard method?
Yes. National guidance supports authorities that plan for higher growth, for example to reflect economic ambitions or other strategic objectives. The adopted requirement can therefore exceed the assessed minimum need.
The plan must still identify a credible strategy and sufficient land.
Can a council plan for fewer homes than its need?
A plan may propose to accommodate less than the assessed need within the authority where robust evidence shows that constraints or other circumstances justify that approach. Strategic cooperation and consideration of unmet need are then important.
The position is examined through the plan-making process and should not be assumed merely because land is constrained.
How often does the local housing need figure change?
The input data change over time. Dwelling-stock estimates are generally updated annually, usually in May, and affordability ratios annually, usually in March. Authorities should keep the figure under review during plan-making.
A calculation used at submission may be relied upon for a defined period under current guidance.
How does housing need differ from five-year supply?
Housing need estimates the minimum homes to plan for. Five-year housing land supply tests whether enough deliverable sites exist for the next five years against the applicable requirement or need figure.
One is a need calculation; the other is a land-supply assessment.
How does housing need differ from the Housing Delivery Test?
The Housing Delivery Test compares actual completed homes with homes required over a past rolling period. Local housing need is a forward-looking plan-making input.
A council can have a high need figure and also under-deliver against its existing requirement.
Does a higher housing need mean my land will be allocated?
No. A higher figure can increase the amount of land required, but the council still assesses location, policy, access, flood risk, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage, infrastructure and deliverability.
The land must be promoted with site-specific evidence.
How much land is needed to meet a housing target?
There is no fixed conversion. Density, housing mix, site constraints, infrastructure, open space, drainage and non-residential uses all affect capacity. Councils also need contingency because not every site will deliver exactly as expected.
Gross land requirements are therefore larger than a simple net density calculation may suggest.
What is unmet housing need?
Unmet need is housing need that cannot be accommodated within the originating authority’s strategy. Strategic planning may examine whether neighbouring areas or a wider spatial strategy can accommodate some of that need.
The outcome depends on evidence, cooperation, constraints and plan-making arrangements.
When should a landowner promote land?
Promotion should begin while the authority is gathering evidence and considering spatial options, not only after preferred allocations are selected. Calls for Sites, HELAA work and early Local Plan consultations are important opportunities.
The submission should combine housing evidence with a credible site-specific case.