Woking Borough Council

Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment

SHLAA and Housing Land Supply Position Statement

The purpose of the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) is to identify specific deliverable and developable sites, to demonstrate how the level of housing supply set out in the adopted Core Strategy is to be achieved. The SHLAA has also been prepared to inform the preparation of the Site Allocations Development Plan Document.

SHLAA Call for Sites 

A new Call for Sites for the SHLAA was held from 21 November to 19 December 2022. However, the Council is always happy to receive information about new sites being promoted for development in the Borough.  If there is a site in Woking borough which you wish to promote for housing development, please fill out the form at this link:

SHLAA Site Form

Please fill out one form per site, and provide us with a plan showing the boundary of each site you wish to promote. If you have previously promoted a site through the SHLAA, please let us know whether this site is still available by also filling out the form with up-to-date details and noting the reference number of your site.

Please send your completed form and plan to [email protected] or, if you are unable to send it electronically, to Planning Policy, Woking Borough Council, Civic Offices, Gloucester Square, Woking, GU21 6YL, by 19 December 2022.

For more information on how to send in a site, please email us at the address above or call 01483 743871.

Your site will be assessed in the next SHLAA for which this is possible.

SHLAA (2017)

 Woking Borough Council has prepared its fifth Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) for Woking Borough. This study supersedes the previous studies including the SHLAA 2014.

The SHLAA 2017 can be downloaded in sections below - some of these documents are large files and may take some time to download:

Background to the SHLAA

The Council is currently working towards meeting an annual housing requirement of 292 dwellings per annum. The main role of the SHLAA is to:

  • identify and assess sites and their potential for housing

  • assess when sites are likely to be developed.

The SHLAA is an important part of the evidence base for the documents that will comprise the Council's Local Development Documents (LDDs). In particular, the Core Strategy, which identifies broad locations for development, and the Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD).

Specifically, the SHLAA:

  • identifies the recent pattern of housing development;

  • identifies the choice of sites available to meet Woking Borough's housing requirement;

  • forms a basis for making decisions about where to locate housing development in the future;

  • informs whether action may need to be taken in order to ensure that sites become deliverable;

  • informs whether policies need to be reviewed to enable identified sites to come forward for development.

It should be noted that the SHLAA does not determine whether a site will be allocated for housing development. Any conclusions reached in the study are made without prejudice to the determination of any subsequent planning applications in respect of the sites assessed.

Sites for housing will be allocated in the Site Allocations Development Plan Document, which is being prepared using the evidence in the SHLAA and other studies. The Council will continue to involve the community in the preparation of the Site Allocations DPD through wide reaching public consultation; for more details see the Site Allocations DPD webpage here. The DPD will also be subject to independent examination.

The SHLAA is based on the best information reasonably available at the time of writing and using the professional judgment of those involved.

Previous versions of the SHLAA

Superseded versions of the SHLAA can be downloaded below.

The SHLAA 2014:

The SHLAA 2011:

The SHLAA 2010:

The SHLAA 2009:

SHLAA methodology

A draft methodology was written for the first SHLAA which set out how the site assessments would be undertaken. Key stakeholders were consulted on this and their comments were taken into account before the final methodology was produced.

The SHLAA methodology has since been updated (July 2017) to reflect the current planning policy context at both a national and local level.

Housing Land Supply Position Statement

The Council has prepared a Housing Land Supply Position Statement for 2017 which can be found alongside previous Statements.