The SHLAA identifies land that is physically capable of accommodating housing development, but does not make a judgment about whether it should be allocated in future plans.

Consultation will take place with the local community during the preparation of Christchurch and East Dorset's Core Strategy and Site Specific Allocations documents as part of the emerging Local Development Framework. Anyone who wishes to make representations about the suitability, or otherwise, of sites for development is encouraged to do so as part of this process.

The inclusion of a site within this assessment, even where it has been considered 'suitable' for development, does not in any way guarantee that any planning permission will be granted on that land. It will simply be used to demonstrate an available 5 year housing land supply.

SHLAA 2011 update

A requirement of Government guidance is that local planning authorities should update their SHLAAs regularly to maintain a current supply of potential housing land.  Therefore East Dorset District Council, together with Bournemouth Borough Council and Christchurch Borough Council are undertaking an update to their individual SHLAAs during the summer of 2011.  The call for sites associated with this update closed on 29 July 2011, thank you to those who submitted sites.

SHLAA 2009 Report

All councils in England are required by the Government to assess the amount of land available for housing development in their area, using the process known as SHLAA. The assessments will provide the evidence base to support the delivery of sufficient land to meet the community's need for more homes.  Although it will be used to inform future local planning policy, it will not itself constitute planning policy. The 2009 report is available to download on the right hand side of this page, although does not include a complete set of appendices.  The full 2008 report is also available to download.

Guidance recommends that assessments be undertaken within sub-regional Housing Market Areas following agreed methodologies.  East Dorset forms part of the South East Dorset Housing Market Area, along with Christchurch, Bournemouth, Poole, North Dorset and Purbeck.  A methodology (pdf, 361kb) (opens in a new window) has been jointly developed for this area and this is set out within Appendix A of the SHLAA Report.

• Name: Local Plan or conservation matters (East Dorset)
  Email: forward.planning@eastdorset.gov.uk
  Tel: 01202 886201
  Full details for Local Plan or conservation matters (East Dorset)