North East Derbyshire Council – which covers towns like Clay Cross, Dronfield, Eckington and Killamarsh - have opened a Call for Sites process, the very first stage in the council’s work to prepare a new Local Plan. This provides an opportunity for landowners to try to secure planning permission on their land – even ones where development wouldn’t be supported by current planning policies.
Every council in England is required to have a Local Plan setting out how much development is needed and where it should be located in the following 15 years. Although North East Derbyshire’s current Plan only came into force in 2021, their planning officers have identified a number of areas that already need updating.
Government proposals to change both the way Local Plans are prepared and how housing targets are calculated mean North East Derbyshire haven’t yet confirmed a timetable for preparing their new Plan. Instead, they will wait until the wider national policy context is known.
However, to ensure they can quickly start work when those details are confirmed, the council have opened a Call for Sites exercise, running until 10 January 2025.
The Call for Sites process is used by councils to identify land in their area which could be suitable for development and provides an opportunity for landowners to submit details of their sites to the council.
Planning officers will review the sites submitted and consider their suitability for development. The result is a “long-list” of potential development sites for the council to choose from once they have decided how much development is needed and broadly where it will be located.
You can find out more about the Call for Sites process here.
As this is the first chance for landowners who want to see their sites developed to make their case to the council, it is important to get your Call for Sites submission right, providing all the information needed to properly assess your land. That usually means submitting more than just the details requested on the council’s Call for Sites form.
For example, The Strategic Land Group prepares Development Statements on behalf of our landowner partners covering matters like transport, ecology, drainage, landscape, heritage, flood risk and all the other issues which will be important to the council’s decision as to which sites to allocate for development. Our objective is to make it as easy as possible for the council to choose your site for development.
We do all of that our own cost and risk. We only charge landowners a fee if we are successful in first securing planning permission for their land and then finding a developer to buy it. If we don’t succeed in both of those steps, it doesn’t cost our partners anything. Our fee is a share of the value of the site once it is sold so you can also be sure we have the same objective – to secure the best possible price in the shortest possible time.
If you know of a site that could benefit from our approach – in North East Derbyshire or anywhere else - get in touch today for a free, no obligation consultation.
