Land availability

Strategic Land Availability Assessments

Call for housing and employment sites

The new Dorset Council 'call for sites' 2024 is now open. We are inviting agents, landowners, and developers to submit land which they think may have potential for:

• new homes (including for the settled and Traveller communities)
• employment land

The deadline for submission of sites for consideration is 20 December 2024. We anticipate that sites submitted will be assessed and published in 2025, alongside sites previously submitted to the Council after 1 July 2023. 

A guidance note has been produced to provide further details on the site submission criteria for each potential use. To find out more and to submit a site please access the survey below.

All site owner details submitted will remain confidential. Information about data protection and freedom of information for submissions can be found at the bottom of this page.

If you are unsure whether to submit a site, you may prefer to have a brief informal discussion over the phone with a planning policy officer before submitting a response to the survey, using the details below.

Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment update 2024

An update to the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) was published in October 2024.

The council carried out a 'call for sites' in October 2019 to identify sites that may have potential for development over the next 15 years and beyond.  SHLAA assessments were carried out and published in 2020, with an update published in 2021. A further call for sites took place in 2023, and sites submitted by July 2023 have now been assessed and published in the October 2024 update. Assessments for sites submitted after July 2023 will be published in 2025.

The SHLAA is available as a live database and as GIS interactive mapping. Sites have been assessed for their development potential and are attributed one of three conclusions; Developable (including affordable housing exception sites), Suitable subject to policy change, or Unsuitable. Please note that although the assessment is an important source of evidence to inform plan-making the assessment does not in itself determine whether a site should be allocated for development, which is the role of the Local Plan.

A  guidance note and methodology also accompanies this land availability assessment.

If you have any questions regarding the SHLAA please contact the Planning Policy team using the contact details found at the bottom of this page.

It should be noted that sites have been assessed using data available at the time of the assessment. This means that planning constraints and policy information updated after the assessment took place may not be captured.

Gypsy and Traveller Land Availability Assessment

The Gypsy and Traveller Land Availability Assessment is available as a live database and GIS interactive mapping (to view, select layer control on the menu bar, Planning, Gypsy and Traveller Land Availability Assessment 2023). Sites assessed include those submitted during the ‘call for sites’, existing permitted Traveller sites, known unauthorised sites, and other potentially suitable sites identified by Officers. Sites are concluded as being either Suitable or Unsuitable.

We have not provided specific mapping for all of the sites which have been assessed for suitability through the appraisal to protect the privacy of existing residents. The maps which do provide specific locations for sites either already have planning permission or according to our records are not being used by Travellers.

Please note that although the assessment is an important source of evidence to inform plan-making the assessment does not in itself determine whether a site should be allocated for development, which is the role of the Local Plan. 

It should also be noted that sites have been assessed using data available at the time of the assessment. This means that planning constraints and policy information updated after the assessment took place may not be captured.

Data protection and freedom of information 

The information collected in the call for sites response form will be used by your local planning authority to inform Spatial Policy decisions and related evidence.

By responding you are accepting that your response and the information within it will be in the public domain, and that it may be disclosed if requested under the Freedom of Information Act. However, any published information will not contain personal details of individuals.

Your information will be retained by the council in line with its information retention schedule. Your data will be destroyed once the plan becomes redundant.

If you have any concerns about how your information is used please contact: