A HELAA or SHLAA is a council evidence document used to identify and assess land that might contribute to future housing, employment or mixed-use development. It can reveal how the authority currently views a site's suitability, availability, achievability, indicative capacity and possible delivery period.
Inclusion can be encouraging, but it is not the same as a Local Plan allocation or planning permission. A site may be assessed positively and still not be selected because the council prefers another growth strategy, infrastructure is unavailable or competing sites perform more strongly.
Exclusion or a negative conclusion is not always final. Boundaries, ownership, access solutions, technical evidence, policy and development needs can change. The important task is to understand why the council reached its conclusion and whether the underlying information remains correct.
At Value My Land, we can review the assessment entry, the current plan stage and the wider planning context. Our free initial review can help identify whether the land should be submitted, whether a recorded constraint may be capable of resolution and which next step is proportionate.
Send us the location or council site reference for a free initial review
Understanding the evidence base
A land availability assessment helps a council understand which sites could potentially meet future housing, employment and mixed-use needs, but it does not itself grant permission or allocate land.
A Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment, usually shortened to HELAA, is part of the evidence used by a local planning authority when preparing or reviewing its development plan. It brings together potential sites, applies a consistent assessment method and records whether each site appears suitable, available and achievable for a stated use and period. Some authorities use related names such as SHELAA or land availability assessment, but the central purpose is similar.
A Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, or SHLAA, is the earlier housing-focused term that still appears in many adopted evidence bases and council archives. An older SHLAA can remain useful because it may show how the land was previously described, what capacity was assumed and which constraints the council identified. Its conclusions should not be treated as permanently fixed because planning policy, ownership, infrastructure and technical evidence can change.
The assessment is intended to be thorough but proportionate. It is not expected to resolve every technical matter that would be examined through a planning application. Instead, it considers whether there is a reasonable prospect that identified constraints can be addressed and whether the site could contribute to development during the relevant plan period. The council may use desktop information, site visits, landowner submissions, infrastructure evidence and discussions with consultees or market participants.
For a landowner, the most useful part of the document is usually the individual site record rather than the overall headline capacity. The site record may reveal the council's view on access, settlement relationship, flood risk, landscape, ecology, heritage, infrastructure, ownership, delivery timing and estimated yield. Those findings can indicate what evidence is needed next and whether the land should be promoted through a Call for Sites, a Local Plan consultation or another route.
Inclusion is an assessment milestone, not a planning consent. The wording, assumed capacity, timescale and identified constraints within the site record are more important than the fact that a site number appears in the document.
Councils do not all use identical terminology. The title should therefore be read with the methodology and site conclusions rather than treated as a separate planning status.
A Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment normally considers potential housing and employment sites. It may also record mixed-use opportunities, broad locations and land that requires further work before it can be treated as deliverable.
A Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment is usually focused on housing. Many councils retain SHLAA documents from earlier plan reviews, so the term remains important when researching a site's assessment history.
Some authorities use Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment or Strategic Land Availability Assessment. These labels can cover substantially the same evidence-gathering function, although the precise scope must be checked.
Under the new plan-making system, authorities identify sites, assess them, determine draft allocations and later confirm allocations. The site-assessment stage remains distinct from the subsequent policy choice about which sites should be allocated.
A proportionate assessment
The published methodology should explain the stages, assumptions and thresholds used. A landowner should check whether the authority has applied those stages accurately to the particular landholding.
Land may be submitted by an owner, developer or promoter, carried forward from an earlier assessment or identified by the council from planning records, public land information and other evidence. The red-line boundary should match the land actually available.
The council may screen out sites below a size threshold or affected by overriding constraints. A screening decision should still be checked because mapping errors, outdated designations and incorrect assumptions about access or ownership can materially affect the result.
Suitability considers policy, location and physical or environmental constraints. The question is not whether the land is constraint-free, but whether development of an appropriate form and scale could be acceptable after mitigation, infrastructure and design responses.
Availability requires a realistic prospect that the land can be brought forward. Ownership, tenancies, ransom strips, restrictive covenants, multiple interests, the owner's intentions and the likely date for release may all be relevant.
Achievability considers whether development is economically viable and likely to occur. Market demand, abnormal costs, infrastructure, planning obligations, delivery partners, lead-in periods and expected build-out may influence the conclusion.
The authority normally identifies an indicative use, capacity and delivery period. These assumptions should reflect the net developable area rather than simply multiplying the gross acreage by a standard density.
Check the council's conclusions
Send us the site reference, council document or location of the land. We can review the recorded constraints, capacity and delivery assumptions and identify whether further evidence or representations may be appropriate.
A positive assessment normally depends on all three tests. A site that performs strongly on location may still be discounted if it is not genuinely available or if infrastructure makes delivery unrealistic.
Suitability considers whether the site is in an appropriate location and whether identified constraints can be addressed. It can include the development plan, settlement strategy, access, flood risk, ecology, landscape, heritage, neighbouring uses and the likely effect of development. A negative conclusion should explain which constraint is decisive and whether a different scale or layout was considered.
Availability means there is a reasonable prospect that the land will be released for development within the stated period. A clear owner confirmation is useful, but the council may also need to understand tenancies, co-owners, access rights, third-party land, covenants and whether the whole proposed site can be assembled. A site should not be described as immediately available where important interests remain unresolved.
Achievability considers whether development is likely to be viable and completed. The assessment may review the local market, development type, abnormal costs, infrastructure, affordable housing, planning obligations and delivery timescale. It is usually a high-level judgement, but an unsupported assumption that costs make a site unviable can be challenged with proportionate evidence.
An assessment figure is normally an indicative planning capacity, not a guaranteed number of homes or square metres of development.
The council should distinguish between the total landholding and the area realistically capable of accommodating development. Existing homes, woodland, watercourses, flood zones, ecological buffers, landscape planting, drainage, public open space, access roads, utilities and retained agricultural land can all reduce the net developable area. A site promoted as ten hectares may therefore have a much smaller residential or employment development area.
Density assumptions should also respond to location and character. A town-centre brownfield site may support a very different form of development from a village-edge greenfield site. Applying a generic density without considering topography, neighbouring properties, landscape sensitivity, access and green infrastructure can produce an unrealistic yield and weaken confidence in the assessment.
Where the council has significantly reduced capacity, the owner should identify the reason. The reduction may be justified by a genuine constraint, or it may reflect incomplete information that can be addressed through a concept plan, access appraisal, flood review or other proportionate evidence. A credible lower capacity is generally more useful than an ambitious figure that cannot be delivered.
A HELAA or SHLAA capacity should be treated as an evidence-base assumption. Planning permission will require a more detailed design and technical process, and the final capacity may be higher or lower.
The assessment can improve understanding and visibility, but the legal and policy consequences are limited unless the land progresses through later stages of the planning system.
The council has identified and assessed the site as part of its evidence base. The record may show that development is potentially suitable in principle, subject to constraints, infrastructure or further evidence.
The land may be considered when the authority compares options for growth, prepares a spatial strategy or searches for additional housing or employment capacity. A positive record can also help focus future technical work.
Developers and promoters often review assessments when searching for opportunities. Inclusion may therefore increase enquiries, particularly where the site adjoins a settlement and the council has identified a need for further land.
It does not allocate the land, alter the development plan or establish that planning permission should be granted. Allocation requires a later policy decision and planning permission requires a separate application or other consent.
It does not guarantee the recorded capacity, delivery date or value. Those matters may change when detailed surveys, infrastructure costs, planning obligations and market evidence become available.
It does not remove Green Belt, countryside, landscape, heritage, ecological, flood-risk or access policies. The assessment should record those matters, but their planning weight is considered through the relevant decision-making process.
A landowner does not always need a full planning application package. The objective is to address the specific reason for uncertainty or rejection with evidence proportionate to the stage reached.
Provide a clear red-line plan, title information and an explanation of any land needed for access, drainage or infrastructure. Where several owners are involved, explain whether they support a coordinated promotion strategy.
A preliminary highways review can show whether a safe access, visibility splays, pedestrian links and necessary improvements appear achievable. This is particularly important where the assessment assumes access is unavailable.
Map flood zones, trees, habitats, heritage assets, utilities, topography and neighbouring uses, then identify a realistic development area. This helps demonstrate that the promoted capacity has responded to known constraints.
Confirm the owner's intentions, existing occupation, expected release date and any agreement with a promoter or developer. Avoid claiming immediate availability where leases, relocation or third-party rights still require resolution.
For larger or more complex sites, explain phasing, infrastructure, likely delivery partners and the basis for the anticipated programme. A high-level viability or market statement may assist where achievability is disputed.
Relate the site to the settlement, services, housing or employment need, spatial strategy and reasonable alternatives. The evidence should explain why the land is a suitable growth option rather than relying only on ownership availability.
Prepare the next planning step
A site may need corrected evidence, a Local Plan representation, an updated Call for Sites submission or targeted technical work. We can help identify the proportionate next step without treating assessment inclusion as a guarantee of development.
England is currently operating legacy and new plan-making routes in parallel, so the name, format and procedural role of a council's site evidence may differ.
The new local plan-making system came into force on 25 March 2026. Under that system, site selection is expressed as a sequence in which authorities identify sites, assess sites, determine draft allocations and later confirm allocations. This reinforces an important distinction: a site can pass through assessment without being selected as a draft allocation, and a draft allocation remains subject to consultation and examination before adoption.
At the same time, some authorities continue to progress plans under the legacy system in accordance with transitional arrangements. Their evidence may still be described as a HELAA, SHLAA or SHELAA and may be updated at different points in the plan timetable. Landowners should therefore check the council's adopted statement of community involvement, Local Development Scheme, plan timetable and site-submission instructions rather than assuming every authority follows an identical process.
Assessments also change over time. A site may be reassessed because a new owner confirms availability, an access solution emerges, a designation changes, infrastructure is funded or updated evidence addresses an earlier constraint. Conversely, land previously treated as developable may be delayed or removed if delivery stalls, costs increase or the spatial strategy changes.
The document should therefore be read as a dated evidence source. Where a council is reviewing its plan, the owner should confirm whether the site remains in the latest assessment, whether the boundary and assumptions are correct and whether a fresh submission or representation is required.
A HELAA or SHLAA can support later planning work, but each later milestone requires a separate decision and a stronger level of evidence.
The first possible step is identification and assessment. The next may be selection as a reasonable alternative or preferred allocation within an emerging Local Plan. Selection depends not only on the individual site's merits but also on the authority's spatial strategy, overall development needs, infrastructure priorities, environmental effects and comparison with other locations. The Local Plan Allocation Guide explains this later policy stage in more detail.
An allocation can establish strategic support for a defined use and capacity, but it still does not usually authorise development. A planning application must address the allocation policy, design, access, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage, infrastructure, planning obligations and other material considerations. Where the land is not allocated, an application may still be possible in appropriate circumstances, but the policy case will need to be assessed separately.
Land availability assessments can also inform housing supply evidence. However, a site appearing in a long-term assessment is not automatically deliverable within five years. Deliverability depends on planning status, evidence of progress, infrastructure, viability and a realistic prospect of homes being completed within the relevant period. This is examined further in the Five-Year Housing Land Supply guide.
Assessment inclusion may create or strengthen hope value where a purchaser believes there is a realistic prospect of future permission. The scale of that effect depends on the recorded conclusion, policy stage, competing sites, likely timescale, technical risks and commercial terms. It should not be valued as though planning permission already exists. A landowner considering an offer should distinguish existing-use value, hope value and consented development value before committing the land.
The strongest approach is to use the assessment as a diagnostic document: identify what the council accepts, what remains disputed and which evidence is most likely to influence the next planning decision. This also helps avoid commissioning expensive work that does not address the authority's actual concern.
Our free initial review considers the assessment entry alongside the wider planning and physical context of the land.
We can identify the latest available assessment, site reference, Local Plan stage and any open submission or consultation opportunity relevant to the land.
We review the boundary, proposed use, capacity, constraints, suitability, availability, achievability and delivery period recorded by the council.
We consider settlement relationship, policy, access, flooding, ecology, landscape, heritage, infrastructure and the position of competing sites.
We can explain whether the immediate priority appears to be a corrected submission, proportionate technical work, a Local Plan representation or a longer-term promotion strategy.
August 2026 National Policy
The final framework distinguishes the new plan-making system from legacy plans still progressing under transitional arrangements. The correct policy tests therefore depend on the legal route and stage of the particular plan rather than the consultation label alone.
Policies PM8 and PM9 require proportionate evidence and a structured land assessment. Site promotion should explain suitability, availability, achievability, infrastructure and delivery without commissioning application-level work that is unnecessary at the plan stage.
The site-assessment record should identify consistent criteria, explain how constraints and opportunities were scored, and show why selected sites form an appropriate strategy. A representation is stronger where it traces a specific defect in the evidence or comparison rather than relying on preference alone.
New-system local plans are assessed under PM15 as Positive, Appropriate, Effective, Consistent with national policy and in Conformity with any spatial development strategy. A legacy plan may continue under the policy and legal regime preserved by Annex A, so the examination basis must be stated expressly.
Plans prepared under the 2026 regulations and spatial development strategies use the August 2026 framework. Other plans may continue under the December 2024 NPPF and its transition rules. Neighbourhood plans submitted by 17 August 2026 also receive specific protection.
A landowner submission should identify the applicable plan system, policy version, evidence defect, consequence and precise remedy. References to the December 2024 NPPF should be retained only where they accurately describe a legacy or transitional plan.
Read the National Planning Policy Framework published on 17 August 2026.
A land availability assessment sits between site identification and later planning decisions. These guides explain how land is submitted, assessed, selected, allocated and supported by planning and technical evidence.
Where a site has been screened out or scored adversely, read Site Rejected by a HELAA or SHLAA? What to Do Next.
Understand when councils invite land submissions, what information should be provided and how a credible site submission can support later assessment.
Read guideLearn how councils move from a long list of assessed sites to preferred allocations, consultation, examination and adoption within a Local Plan.
Read guideExplore the three tests used to decide whether land represents a realistic development opportunity and what evidence can improve a site assessment.
Read guideUnderstand how development limits and settlement-edge relationships influence site assessment, Local Plan promotion and potential future boundary changes.
Read guideLearn how land with longer-term development potential is identified, assessed and promoted through evidence-base studies and Local Plan reviews.
Read guideSee how national policy, adopted and emerging Local Plans, spatial strategies and material considerations affect development prospects.
Read guideReview how settlement relationships, services, public transport, surrounding uses and accessibility influence the planning case for development.
Read guideUnderstand how access rights, visibility, road capacity, walking routes and highway improvements can influence site capacity and deliverability.
Read guideLearn how councils identify deliverable housing sites and why land availability evidence can matter where the required supply is disputed.
Read guideNo. Inclusion means the council has identified and assessed the site within its evidence base. Allocation is a later policy decision made through the Local Plan process after the authority compares sites, develops its spatial strategy, consults and completes examination. The assessment entry can support that process, but it does not change the development plan by itself. Read how Local Plan allocation works.
No. Planning permission requires a separate decision based on the development plan, national policy and other material considerations. Detailed access, drainage, ecology, landscape, heritage, design, infrastructure and planning-obligation matters may need to be resolved. A positive assessment can be useful evidence, but it is not a promise that a particular application, use or capacity will be approved.
Common reasons include an unsuitable location, access concerns, flood risk, environmental or heritage constraints, infrastructure limitations, uncertain ownership, lack of availability, unrealistic capacity or doubts about viability and timing. The published site record and methodology should identify the reason. Some findings may be well founded; others may rely on incomplete or outdated information that can be addressed through proportionate evidence.
A council will normally have consultation, Call for Sites or evidence-update arrangements through which information can be submitted. The appropriate route depends on the plan stage. A response should identify the precise error, provide supporting material and explain how the corrected position affects suitability, availability, achievability or capacity. Simply disagreeing with the conclusion is less persuasive than addressing the stated reason.
Usually, yes, where the authority is accepting sites or representations. The submission should include an accurate boundary, ownership and availability information, proposed use, indicative capacity and relevant constraints. Timing matters because some councils maintain a rolling process while others assess sites at defined plan-making stages. See the Call for Sites Guide.
Suitable relates to whether development of an appropriate form could be acceptable having regard to policy, location and constraints. Available means there is a reasonable prospect that the land can be released within the stated period. Achievable considers whether development is viable and likely to occur. A credible site normally needs to perform adequately against all three tests.
It can influence market perception where the assessment supports a realistic prospect of future development, but the effect varies considerably. A positively assessed settlement-edge site may attract promoter or developer interest, while a heavily constrained site may not. Inclusion should not be valued as though permission exists. Policy stage, timing, capacity, costs, competing sites and agreement terms all affect any hope value.
There is no single update cycle applying identically to every authority. Assessments may be refreshed during Local Plan preparation, after a Call for Sites, when monitoring evidence changes or when the council needs additional land. Under the current transitional position, some authorities use legacy HELAA or SHLAA processes while others follow the new plan-making framework, so the council's timetable should be checked.
Yes. A broad land availability assessment may identify sites with longer-term potential, including sites without permission or allocation. To contribute to a five-year supply, the authority must show that the site is deliverable within that period using the relevant evidence. Planning status, progress, infrastructure, viability, ownership and realistic build-out are important. Assessment inclusion alone is insufficient.
A postcode, map pin, what3words reference, title plan or council site reference is usually enough to begin. It is helpful to provide the latest assessment extract, any previous submission, ownership details and information about access or existing occupation. You do not need to commission a full consultant team before requesting a high-level review of the recorded planning position.
Send us the site location or council reference and we will review the available assessment, the recorded constraints and the current Local Plan stage.
You do not need a complete planning file. A postcode, map pin, title plan or extract from the council's assessment is normally enough for an initial review.Prefer to understand the assessment process first? Download our free “What Is a HELAA or SHLAA?” landowner guide.
Request a free, no-obligation review of how your land has been assessed and the practical options for progressing it through the planning system.
Our high-level review considers the planning position and the practical characteristics of the land before any detailed instruction is discussed.
Phone
0800 061 4006Office
13 Ensign Business Centre
Westwood Way
Coventry
CV4 8JA
