Planners & Development Economists

Roger Tym & Partners
Roger Tym & Partners

Rossendale SHLAA

March 2009

Roger Tym & Partners has recently completed the first Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) for Rossendale in Lancashire.

Rossendale is relatively small borough, encompassing under 70,000 people.  The Council has to identify land for around 200 new houses per annum to meet growth needs.  The main challenge to achieving this is in the area's topography: it is mainly high open moorlands with the towns crammed into valley bottoms, meaning that land for new development is scarce.

The SHLAA considers the potential supply of housing sites in the area over a 20-year period.  Each site is categorised according to its performance against a range of ‘suitability', ‘availability' and ‘achievability' criteria.  We visited over 400 potential sites and completed the SHLAA in under two months.

The results show that the Borough's entire 15-year dwelling targets can be reached without having to reply on any land assessed as being severely constrained.

We have developed a strong track record in this field, having produced a number of SHLAAs in the last 12 months, including North Northamptonshire, South Lakeland and Bolton.  Our established SHLAA Database, strong and proven methodology, in-depth understanding of the Guidance, and its long-standing role in compiling the Government's NLUD database give it a unique ability to produce a robust evidence base.