Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA)
Local planning authorities are required to carry out a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) to assess potential sites for future housing development. Sunderland's first SHLAA was published in March 2009 and the 2010 SHLAA is now available.
Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (March 2010)
PPS3 requires local planning authorities to carry out a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment in order to identify future sources of land for housing. It is essentially a more comprehensive update of the council's Urban Capacity Study. The Sunderland SHLAA covers the 15 years from 2009 to 2024. It will form part of the evidence base, along with other information, to inform decision in plan making including future allocations within Local Development Framework (LDF) documents.
The primary role of the SHLAA is to
- Identify sites with potential for housing
- Assess their housing potential
- Assess when they are likely to be developed
The City Council has now published its SHLAA that provides information on the opportunities that exist to meet housing need within Sunderland. It has been undertaken in full accordance with national guidance and has involved consultation with stakeholders and others on land for consideration and the draft schedule of sites.
Important: The SHLAA does not represent planning policy or allocate sites for housing development, nor does the inclusion of a site in the SHLAA necessarily mean that it is considered appropriate for housing or would be granted planning permission.
Further details are available for each of the individual sites, including facilities and constraints plans, site location planes, site survey forms and aerial photos. These are available to view below and are split into Area Regeneration Framework areas. Note: the sites and information will be brought up to date during 2010.
If you are unsure which ARF area the site you are interested in is within, please see the 
ARF Boundary Map 2010 [3Mb] .
There will be a call in the near future for suggestions of sites to be included in the next SHLAA (to be published March 2011)
Tyne & Wear SHLAA Partnership
The Tyne and Wear SHLAA Partnership of Local Planning Authorities, developers and other relevant agencies has agreed to work to a common methodology to undertake the SHLAA's in the five districts of Tyne and Wear. This methodology reflects the Government's guidance detailed in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Practice Guide (July 2007) as supplemented by the North East England SHLAA Regional Implementation Guide (prepared by the North East Assembly, March 2008) and the Tyne & Wear SHLAA Sub-Regional Addendum Concept Paper and Supplementary Guidance (July 2008) [83kb] For further information on the partnership working please see the TWRI site.
Sunderland Strategic Housing Market Assessment
The Sunderland Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) provides an assessment of the requirement of housing in Sunderland, including types of housing, locality and affordable housing. It also researched the wider support needs of communities across the city.
Sunderland SHMA Report (Full Version) [2Mb]
Sunderland SHMA Report (Executive Summary) [158kb]
Further information is available at the SHMA homepage
