A land availability assessment identifies potential development sites and broad locations as an audit of available land and is not constrained by the level of need identified in a plan or strategy. It does not in itself determine whether a piece of land should be allocated for development, it is the role of the Local Plan to determine which of those sites are the most suitable allocations to take forward. A broad range of sites will be needed to help meet development requirements in the borough, for a variety of different land uses.
The report and assessments are part of a wider library of technical evidence that informs plan-making and planning policy in Cheshire West and Chester.
Land Availability Assessment Stage One
The Land Availability Assessment (Stage One) report identifies a broad range of sites, including those that have been submitted through the 'call for sites' process. This stage looks at national planning policy constraints and designations, and will be followed by more detailed considerations of site constraints and attributes as part of further stages of site assessment and the plan making process.
The latest Stage One report below is based on the 2025 housing and employment monitoring data, and incorporates sites received through the 2025 Regulation 18 Issues and Options consultation.
A PDF copy of the latest report and supporting information are available below:
Next steps
The Stage One outcomes of the land availability assessment, and on-going site assessments, will form the basis of future working to identify potential site allocations when preparing the new Local Plan.
The site identification process will identify site specific attributes and will result in a more refined assessment of the suitability, availability and achievability of each site to deliver the suggested type of development. The density and capacity assumptions will be reviewed, and revised where appropriate, to reflect the site-specific attributes.