Housing and economic land availability assessment (HELAA)
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils
Housing and economic land availability assessment
Our Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) is an important source of evidence to help inform our plan-making and site selection for the Joint Local Plan. It comprises an audit of land and sites across South and Vale, to assess their broad suitability, availability and achievability for a promoted use (primarily housing and/or employment uses).
The HELAA does not grant planning permission or allocate sites for development.
We have prepared a HELAA report and map (see below), which explains how we have followed national guidance and taken into account previously prepared joint Oxfordshire methodology when carrying out our HELAA.
We used a wide range of data sources to compile a list of sites/parcels of land (around 800 in South Oxfordshire and 700 in the Vale of White Horse) and undertook a high-level (Step 1) assessment of each site’s suitability for development against a range of environmental, heritage and physical constraints. We removed any sites following Step 1 where there was no prospect of them being suitable for development due to ‘absolute’ site constraints.
We then carried out further (Step 2) assessment, looking at additional site suitability criteria.
For those sites not already removed at Steps 1 or 2, we considered their availability and achievability and estimated their potential developable area, based on various assumptions, in order to determine the potential number of houses and/or amount of employment land that could potentially be accommodated on the site.
The HELAA report includes the outcome of our assessment, with appendices A and B comprising lists of those sites which were removed following Step 1 or Step 2 assessment. Appendix C to the report comprises individual proformas for all sites that have been assessed in the HELAA.
We experienced some technical issues with transferring data into our Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) site proformas, which resulted in a small number of sites wrongly being removed from the HELAA process following Step 1 or Step 2 assessment. We have corrected this in an Erratum to the HELAA report and produced a revised Appendix C . We have extended the dates of the Joint Local Plan consultation to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to comment on this revised supporting document if they’d like to.
Important Points to Note:
The HELAA does not allocate sites or grant planning permission, it only identifies sites that may have development potential.
If a site/piece of land is not included in the HELAA, it does not in any way preclude its future development, provided it is consistent with the planning policy framework that exists at the time.
The HELAA does not take into account how much development is needed but provides a high-level assessment of how much land could be expected to come forward for development, the type and size of development that could come forward, and when it could come forward.
For transparency, we are making site data available to you on the map below (and in individual site proformas contained within the HELAA report). You do not need to contact us to tell us whether you support or object to these sites. These are not proposals the councils are making for development.
Many more sites have been assessed in the HELAA than will need to be allocated for development over the Joint Local Plan period up to 2041.
Housing and economic land availability assessment (HELAA) map
How can I view the sites assessed in my area?
Our interactive map allows you to explore the districts by dragging the map with the hand tool and zooming in and out. You can use the cursor to click on the sites with coloured edges and this will bring up a box with site-specific information. You can also expand the map to full screen using the arrows in the top right corner to allow easier navigation.
What information is shown on the map?
- South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district boundaries.
- Boundaries of individual sites/parcels of land assessed as part of the HELAA.
- Mapping layers denoting environmental, heritage or physical constraints (which can be clicked on or off).
By clicking on a site/parcel of land, you can view its unique site reference number, which can be used to find each individual site’s proforma in Appendix C to the HELAA report.
What happens next:
We may publish further updates to the HELAA as work on the Plan progresses.
Sources
District Boundary: Ordnance Survey
Additional data: Environmental Agency, Natural England, National Landscapes
South: © Crown copyright and database rights 2024. Ordnance Survey 100018668
Vale: © Crown copyright and database rights 2024. Ordnance Survey 100019525