It is a requirement for local planning authorities to produce strategic land assessments to identify parcels of land that could be developed for residential and economic uses.
Below are the meanings to the different assessments used by local authorities, they are all are very similar, some are purely housing (SHLAA) and others contain economic land potential. The purpose of these assessments are for the local authorities to understand which land may be available and suitable to help identify their development needs.
SHLAA - Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment - identifies future supply of land which is suitable, available and achievable for housing.
HELAA - Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment - identifies future supply of land which is suitable, available and achievable for housing and economic development uses.
SHELAA - Strategic Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment - identifies future supply of land which is suitable, available and achievable for housing and economic development uses.
SLAA - Strategic Land Availability Assessment – identifies future supply of land suitable to help meet the Local Authorities development needs.
JHLAS - Joint Housing Land Availability Study - it is a requirement for every local planning authority in Wales to undertake a Joint Housing Land Availability Study on an annual basis to monitor the supply of land that is available for housing.
These assessments can offer the earliest possible visibility of opportunities that are likely to arise in the future, and can easily be found using the keyword search tool.