Call for Sites and Local Plans: How Land Gets Allocated for Housing

A local plan sets out how many homes and jobs an area needs, where they should go, and the policies used to decide planning applications. Once adopted, it forms part of the development plan, and planning law says applications must be decided in line with the development plan unless other considerations indicate otherwise.

When a plan allocates your land for housing, the argument about whether homes should go there is largely over. The planning application that follows is mostly about the detail: layout, access, drainage, design and the contributions the developer pays. That is why allocation is the most reliable long-term route to planning permission for most land, even though it is slower than an application on a site where the council is short of homes.

Plans now have to allocate enough land to show a five-year supply of deliverable sites from the day they are adopted. Many councils are starting new plans at the same time, so a lot of them are looking for land.

New regulations came into force on 25 March 2026, and councils can now prepare plans under a new system. The aim is for a plan to be prepared within 30 months, including an examination that ideally lasts no more than six months. The process has a period of early engagement, two rounds of formal public consultation and three gateway assessments.

Some councils are still finishing plans under the old system, where the consultation stages were known as Regulation 18 and Regulation 19. The principles for landowners are the same: get the land in early, back it with evidence, and support it at every stage.

Government guidance lets each council run its call for sites in the way that suits it. Some keep it open throughout the plan, some open it at set points, and some run a window of a fixed number of weeks. Deadlines are usually firm, so watch your council's planning policy pages or ask someone to watch them for you.

Councils are told to collect the same basic information for every site:

• Contact details, and your relationship to the site, such as owner or developer.
• The address or location, with a map. Many councils ask for a digital boundary.
• Site size, whether it is previously developed, its current and previous uses, and planning history.
• What you propose: the use or uses, and the likely scale of development.
• Known constraints, such as flood risk, and how they could be dealt with.

Councils do not rely only on what is submitted. They also look at existing allocations, the brownfield land register, planning applications, pre-application enquiries, earlier land availability assessments and land owned by public bodies. Your land may already be on their list from years ago, perhaps with out-of-date information.

Sites are assessed in what many councils still call a Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment, or HELAA. The new guidance keeps the same three questions:

• Suitable: would the site be an appropriate location for development, considering its constraints and whether they can be mitigated?
• Available: is there a reasonable prospect it will be available when needed? Ownership problems, tenancies or an unwilling co-owner count against it.
• Achievable: is there a reasonable prospect it could be developed, including whether it is viable?

For housing, a site is "deliverable" if it is suitable, available now, and at least some homes could be built within five years of the plan being adopted. It is "developable" if there is a reasonable prospect of it coming forward later. Sites heavily affected by serious constraints, such as flood zones 3a and 3b, are screened out early.

Guidance uses a red, amber and green (RAG) rating for each question, followed by an overall score. An illustrative example for a 5 hectare field on the edge of a village might look like this:

Notice how many ambers could turn green with modest evidence. That is the difference a prepared submission makes.

• A clear red-line plan, with every owner identified and agreeing to the submission.
• Confirmation that the land is available now, with any tenancies or occupation explained. See our guide to tenancies and vacant possession.
• Evidence of a safe access onto a public road, ideally a short transport note with visibility splays drawn. If access crosses someone else's land, say how that is solved. Our guide to access and ransom strips explains why this matters.
• The flood zone and surface water position, and a simple drainage strategy.
• A preliminary ecology appraisal, and an early view on Biodiversity Net Gain.
• A concept layout showing how many homes fit, where open space goes and how the edge of the settlement is treated.
• Distances to the school, shops, bus stops and station.
• A named promoter or developer committed to delivering the site, and a realistic timetable.
• A short statement on how the site meets the council's stated strategy.

None of this has to be expensive at the call for sites stage, but it does need to be done properly. A map and a completed form will get the land on the list. It rarely gets it allocated.

If your land is allocated, others will object to it, often neighbours and sometimes the parish council. Supporting evidence is what lets the inspector keep the allocation in the plan.

The examination is carried out by an independent planning inspector. Anyone can attend the hearings. People who made representations on the proposed plan have a right to be heard, and others can ask to take part.

The inspector tests whether the plan meets legal requirements and national policy. They can recommend changes, called main modifications, which are consulted on before the plan is adopted. An inspector can add sites, delete them or change the number of homes. Allocations are only secure once the plan is adopted.

Under policy HO6 of the August 2026 NPPF, plans should allocate land for at least 10% of the housing requirement on sites no larger than one hectare, and a further 10% on sites of between one and two and a half hectares, unless there are strong reasons why this cannot be achieved.

One hectare is about 2.5 acres and two and a half hectares is about 6.2 acres. For owners of paddocks, small fields and yards, that makes a call for sites more worthwhile than it used to be, because councils have to find those sites. See our page on paddocks and small sites.

Many parish and town councils prepare neighbourhood plans. They must be in general conformity with the strategic policies of the local plan, they are examined independently, and they then go to a local referendum. If more than half of those voting say yes, the plan is "made" and becomes part of the development plan.

Some neighbourhood plans allocate small housing sites, and some run their own call for sites. If your parish is preparing or reviewing one, it is worth taking part. Neighbourhood plans can also designate Local Green Space, which gives open land strong protection, so it is worth knowing if your land is being considered.

At the first stage, government guidance says councils do not have to publish a list of submitted sites, and if they do, personal details such as contact information should be withheld. In practice most councils publish site maps and assessments as part of their evidence, and representations made at the formal consultation stages are normally published, usually with the name of the person or organisation making them.

If you would rather your name did not appear, a promoter or option holder can make the submission and representations in its own name on your behalf. Your neighbours will still see that the land has been put forward, so some owners choose to speak to them first.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has published a timetable for its new plan under the 30-month system:

For a landowner, adoption is not the finish line. After allocation, the developer still needs to prepare and submit a planning application, agree a Section 106 agreement and discharge conditions. If land is submitted in 2026 and allocated in a plan adopted at the end of 2028, permission in 2029 or 2030 would be a good outcome. Our guide to how long planning takes sets out each step.

Under our agreements, we prepare and pay for the evidence, submits the site, makes representations at each consultation and, where needed, appears at the examination. You do not pay for any of it. If the plan route is not the right one, for example because an application could succeed sooner, we will say so.

Getting land into a local plan is a long game and not every site is allocated. If your land is unlikely to be chosen this time, we will tell you, and what we have learned can be used for the next plan.

If your council has a call for sites open, talk to us as soon as possible, because deadlines are firm. Or ask for a free review of your land first.