Strategic housing land availability assessment

We have commenced work on the review of the 2006 local plan which will guide future development to 2031.

The Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is a technical assessment to identify potential new land suitable for housing which might be available over the next 20 years, as part of the evidence base for the new plan.

The SHLAA does not allocate any specific sites or suggest that planning permission be given on them. It is for the local plan review to decide which and how many sites should go forward and where they should be.

The SHLAA should be treated as a 'living' document and the information will be subject to change over short periods of time, as circumstances change on a site. The delivery of housing will be monitored through the annual monitoring report to ensure that a continuous five-year supply of deliverable sites is available.

If you have any questions about the SHLAA, please contact our Planning Policy team at planning@cambridge.gov.uk.

SHLAA 2013

The SHLAA 2013 is an update to the 2012 SHLAA document.

SHLAA 2013 - Main Report & Annexes 1-12 [PDF, 3.3MB] [PDF, 3.5MB]
SHLAA 2013 - Ward maps for Annex 11

SHLAA and Potential Site Allocations High Level Viability Assessment 2013

Consultants were commissioned by Cambridge City Council to carry out a high level viability assessment of a range of sites within the Council’s Strategic Housing land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) scope and to a number of potential allocation sites in addition. This report, the SHLAA High Level Viability Assessment 2013.pdf [PDF, 1.1MB] [PDF, 1MB] shows these findings.

SHLAA 2012

Background

The National Planning Policy Framework 2012 requires local authorities to produce a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) to form part of a robust evidence base to inform the production of development plan documents, including local plans.

The SHLAA has been prepared in accordance with government best practice guidance published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) in 2007. This sets out a 10-stage process to assess sites in a SHLAA. The main SHLAA report follows this approach. The primary role of the SHLAA is to:

identify sites with potential for housing;
assess their housing potential; and
assess when these sites are likely to be developed.

Future housing provision will be set locally through the review of the local plan, which will need to balance housing need and demand against the capacity of the area to accommodate new development. This will need to ensure that any housing proposal sites are deliverable. Technical work on the SHLAA prepares the way for this work.

It does this by identifying sites that have potential for new housing, and then estimates how many homes could be built on these sites. It then suggests a time frame when they might become available.

Following the Local Plan Issues and Options consultation in June - July 2012, there will be further public consultation on sites for all land uses as part of the local plan review.

Draft SHLAA (July 2011)

A report on the draft SHLAA was considered by the Development Plan Scrutiny Sub Committee on 12 July 2011. This described the council's approach and methodology for the assessment of sites along with draft assessments of 28 potential sites considered suitable and deliverable over the period of the next local plan review. These were distilled from almost 900 sites initially identified.

Land owners were contacted over the summer and a housing market partnership was set up to assist the council in the evaluation of sites.

Public Consultation (September 2011)

A public consultation followed between 30 September and 11 November 2011 on the potential and rejected sites identified, along with a fresh call for new sites.

Around 100 statutory and other consultees were informed of the consultation. See Annex 12 for list (above).
67 of these consultees were Residents' Associations.
The consultation material and response forms were made available at the Customer Service Centre.
A mailshot was sent to 4,750 residents living near the proposed 28 sites.
All of the consultation material was available on the council's website and via Twitter.

An online consultation system allowed people to submit their comments, and hard copies of the response forms were also available to those who do not have access to the internet. Hard copy response forms and letters received were entered into the online system, making them publicly available.

By the end of the consultation period, the council had received a total of 507 separate representations made by 286 respondents: There were 111 representations in support and 396 objections to the proposals in the document.

Go to our online consultation system for SHLAA document showing the comments submitted.
Download SHLAA consultation responses [PDF]. [PDF, 0.6MB]

Call for additional sites

As part of the SHLAA consultation last year the council asked landowners and developers if they knew of any other sites which might be suitable for housing development. 35 new sites were submitted, including some minor boundary changes on existing sites.

Of the 35 new sites put forward, 13 were cross boundary strategic sites on the edge of Cambridge. Officers in the City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils are assessing these sites as part of their respective SHLAA and local plan processes and are cooperating in their evaluation.

They raise issues over the principle of further development on the edge of Cambridge and whether there are exceptional circumstances to release more land from the green belt.

The sites in annex 14 of the main document (link above) have been evaluated using the existing agreed SHLAA criteria. It is not possible to conclude on their assessment at this stage, as they raise broader planning principles which are being consulted on as part of the current Local plan review: Issues and options consultation.

The SHLAA will then revisit the conclusions on strategic sites on the edge of the city as part of its next update towards the end of the year.

Download a list of submitted sites [PDF] [PDF, 0.2MB] along with maps and supporting documents submitted by the land owners and agents, or a citywide plan [PDF, 10MB]. [PDF, 9.5MB]

South Cambridgeshire SHLAA

Find out about the progress of the South Cambridgeshire District Council SHLAA.

Cambridge City Council