Targeted Call for Sites - Spring 2025

Overview

Sevenoaks Local Plan – Targeted Call for Sites

Sevenoaks District Council is in the process of preparing a new Local Plan for the District and there will be a forthcoming Regulation 18 public consultation in the autumn. You can find out about our Local Plan and our timetable on our website - https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/plan2040.

We are updating our Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA), to assess the availability, suitability and deliverability of land for housing, employment and other uses.

The National Planning Policy Framework  2024 requires us to produce a Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA), which is used in the preparation of the Local Plan. National Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) sets out how local authorities should prepare a SHELAA. The PPG makes it clear that the assessment does not in itself determine whether a site should be allocated for development. This is the function of a Development Plan which determines which of those sites are the most suitable to meet the housing, employment or other use requirements. The SHELAA is therefore only one part of the Local Plan evidence used to determine potential development sites in a Local Plan.

We have re-opened a targeted ‘call for sites’. This provides a further opportunity for landowners and site promoters to suggest potential sites that may be suitable for housing, employment or other uses. Sites will need to be within one of the following three categories to be considered:

• Urban sites (within existing settlement boundaries)
• Previously Developed Land (PDL) /  ‘brownfield’ land
• Potential greenfield ‘grey belt’ land

Please note that if you have already submitted a site and have a reference number (with the prefix HO, EM, MX, GT) then you do not need to resubmit your site. These sites will be re-assessed taking into account the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) 2024. If you need to update any details of sites previously submitted to the council, please contact sites@sevenoaks.gov.uk quoting your site reference number.

The previous SHELAA, published in November 2023, is available on our Plan 2040 Evidence Base webpage. 

Please note that submitting a site does not mean that the site will be allocated or that the site is suitable for development. The SHELAA is a high-level assessment which is used to help determine whether sites could be allocated in the new Local Plan. Before sites are put forward for allocation, other evidence and information will be considered and sites will be put through a comprehensive sustainability appraisal assessment.

We will publish an up-to-date SHELAA alongside the Regulation 18 consultation later in 2025.

Site submissions can be made until 5pm on Wednesday 30^th April 2025.