Buckinghamshire Council have started a ‘wider call for sites’ (including greenfield sites) so they can ascertain a comprehensive understanding of the land available for development within Buckinghamshire, to ensure they have enough capacity to meet future needs to inform their forthcoming Local Plan.
This follows two ‘call for sites’ consultations for brownfield land in line with the Council’s ‘Brown Before Green’ pledge, which sets out the Council’s aspiration for new developments to be sustainable and make the best use of available land.
The new Local Plan for Buckinghamshire (LP4B) will allocate sites for development in the period up to 2040 to meet the housing and economic development needs of Buckinghamshire, whilst prioritising brownfield sites the Council have recognised that greenfield sites will be required to meet the housing need.
This is a rare opportunity to get a greenfield site allocated for housing development – enabling a planning application to run more smoothly through the process. A planning application can usually only be submitted once a site is allocated for development in a Local Plan.
How sites will be assessed
All sites will be technically assessed in the Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments (HELAA), including sites submitted through the ‘wider call for sites’ consultation and the previous two ‘call for sites’ consultations.
The assessment determines how well a site can accommodate development.
Buckinghamshire Council will assess sites for their:
- Suitability
- Availability
- Achievability (including viability) to accommodate development
To show you the assessment process, the Council have published a draft methodology that you can view on the HELAA webpage.
Further information is available at Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments (HELAA) (GOV.UK).
The consultation is open now and closes on the 11th September 2022.
If you are interested in discussing the next steps and how to take advantage of this once in a decade opportunity, please contact one of our planning specialists at ET Planning on 01344 508048 or email crowthorne@etplanning.co.uk quoting “Emerging Buckinghamshire Local Plan – Wider Call for Sites Consultation”.