Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessments (HELAAs) are key evidence documents which support the preparation of Local Plans. Their purpose is to establish how much suitable development land there is in an area and to test if this land could be developed. They help local planning authorities to understand the level of growth they can plan for and the areas where growth can be accommodated. These assessments are not policy documents and they do not determine if land should be allocated for development or if planning permission should be granted.
As part of the Duty to Co-operate it is proposed to use a consistent methodology for producing HELAAs across all of the planning authorities in Norfolk. As such The Norfolk HELAA methodology will apply to the following authorities:
- Breckland District Council
- Broadland District Council
- Broads Authority
- Great Yarmouth Borough Council
- Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
- North Norfolk District Council
- Norwich City Council
- South Norfolk Council
The authorities have consulted on the approach they intend to take to the preparation of their own HELAAs and have now adopted a consistent Norfolk-wide methodology taking account of feedback from that consultation.
The final methodology is considered to have been prepared in accordance with national guidance but proposes that HELAAs would use an alternative size threshold for sites in certain rural locations and would seek to capture all potentially suitable sites within the Broads Authority area, where development potential is significantly constrained.
North Norfolk District Council has been responsible for hosting the consultation, collating the responses and publishing the final HELAA document on behalf of all the Norfolk authorities.