Strategic housing and economic land availability assessment

Key points about the SHELAA

• provides technical information about sites submitted by landowners or their agents 
• enables us to estimate the potential yield of sites
• enables us to estimate when sites may be delivered
• enables us to assess the suitability, availability and achievability of sites
• informs, but does not determine, the allocation of sites in future reviews of the Craven local plan
• does not inform or determine the outcome of planning applications

SHELAA methodology

Our SHELAA methodology was updated in 2020 following consultation. Details of how we responded to feedback can be downloaded below, along with the finalised methodology itself:

•  SHELAA methodology consultation response paper (pdf / 616 KB)
•  SHELAA methodology 2020 (pdf / 969 KB)

SHELAA publication

The SHELAA is updated and published annually, in accordance with the methodology above, and includes a trajectory of future land supply from available, suitable and achievable sites. The current update and appendices can be viewed or downloaded via the links below. Previous updates are archived.

•  SHELAA update 2023 including appendix A (pdf / 288 KB)
•  appendix B schedule of deliverable housing sites (pdf / 223 KB)
•  appendix C schedule of deliverable employment sites (pdf / 169 KB)
•  appendix D site summary schedules (pdf / 995 KB)
•  appendix E schedule of discounted sites (pdf / 1 MB)

How to submit a site

• landowners/agents wishing to promote land for development may submit sites for assessment in the SHELAA
• housing sites should be at least 0.1ha
• economic sites should be at least 0.25ha or provide at least 500sqm of floor space
• sites that fall below these thresholds will be recorded, but not assessed further

In order to submit a site, please read our  guidance notes (pdf / 204 KB) and return a completed  land availability questionnaire (docx / 61 KB) (LAQ). Please contact us to request paper copies.

In order to maintain up-to-date information about site availability, we will require landowners/agents to complete a LAQ for each of their SHELAA sites every two years. If a required LAQ is not received, we may record the site as not available when updating the SHELAA.

Brownfield sites

Any brownfield sites submitted for assessment in the SHELAA will be automatically considered for inclusion in Part I of our brownfield land register.