Call for Sites: How Landowners Get Land Allocated

What a call for sites is and who it is for

Every council needs evidence of where new homes and jobs could go. National guidance calls this a land availability assessment. A call for sites is how the council collects that evidence from the people who own or control land.

GOV.UK guidance says the call should reach "as wide an audience as is practicable". It names landowners, developers, businesses, parish councils and neighbourhood forums. The aim is that people "not normally involved in property development" can take part too.

The council then audits every site it has found. It records size, current use and physical constraints such as access, contamination and flood risk. It judges each site on three tests:

1. Suitable. The site is an appropriate place for development, once constraints and how they could be overcome are considered.
2. Available. There is confidence that no legal or ownership problems stand in the way.
3. Achievable. There is a reasonable prospect the development will happen, including whether it is viable.

The assessment does not decide allocations by itself. National guidance says it is "for the development plan itself" to choose the most suitable sites.

Councils set their own size thresholds. Guidance suggests sites for 5 or more homes, or economic sites of 0.25 hectares and above. Previously developed land can also reach a council's brownfield land register, which uses similar thresholds. Our guide to permission in principle explains that register.

Not sure your land would pass all three tests? Send us a site plan and we will show you where the evidence looks thin.

The local plan timetable under the 2026 system

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 brings in a new way of making local plans, with parts in force from 25 March 2026. GOV.UK guidance says councils "must prepare a single local plan and should adopt it within 30 months". Our guide to what town planning is explains where the local plan sits.

Each council must publish a local plan timetable and keep it up to date. It must give at least 4 months' notice before it starts preparing the plan. GOV.UK recommends running the call for sites during this "getting ready" stage, calling it "the first stage in the site assessment process".

GOV.UK says extra consultations after the proposed plan should be avoided unless there is a strong reason, such as adding or removing sites. So it pays to put land forward early, when the council is still gathering sites.

Some councils are still finishing plans under the older system, which has its own stages and a published Local Development Scheme. Check your council's planning policy page for its timetable and how it takes sites. Late submissions may not be considered until a later stage.

What to submit in a call for sites

National guidance lists the information a call for sites could ask for. If your council provides a form, follow its questions. Expect to cover at least these four points:

1. Site location. A plan with the boundary marked in red, and the address or grid reference.
2. Type of development. Homes, employment uses or a mix, and any specialist housing such as older people's homes.
3. Scale. The number of homes or the floor space the land could take.
4. Constraints. Access, flood risk, contamination, protected trees, heritage or anything else that limits development.

The availability test is where many submissions are weak. A council can treat land as available where an owner "has expressed an intention to develop". It also looks for constraints such as "unresolved multiple ownerships, ransom strips" and tenancies.

Ownership evidence therefore matters as much as the plan. If the land has several owners, show they all support the submission. If access crosses land you do not own, say how it will be secured.

The NPPF 2026, published on 17 August 2026, is the national policy behind every local plan in England. Our guide to the NPPF explains how its housing and land policies work.

A gap in this list can leave a site judged unavailable. Send us what you have and our free land appraisal will show what the land could support; you or your agent then make the submission.

Using a land promoter or going alone

Anyone can respond to a call for sites. The question is who pays for the planning case, and who carries the risk if the site is not chosen.

Going alone. You submit the site and fund any studies yourself. You keep full control and do not share the uplift with a promoter. But you pay for technical reports, and you must keep making representations at each consultation.

With a land promoter. Under a promotion agreement, the promoter usually funds the plan-making and planning work. Once the land has consent, it is sold on the open market. The promoter usually recovers its costs from the sale and takes an agreed share of the price.

National guidance expects councils to involve "landowners and site promoters" at an early stage. A promoter's value lies in the evidence it can produce on suitability, availability and achievability, and in staying with the site through every stage.

Terms vary a great deal between agreements, so read the cost caps and sale approvals carefully. Our guide to the best land promoters and developers sets out six tests for choosing one.

Before you sign, find out what a developer could pay for your land. Then you can judge whether the promoter's share and cost cap are fair.

After allocation: option, promotion or sale

An allocation is not planning permission. Planning permission is still required to develop the land. But the council must decide that application in line with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. That is why an allocation matters to landowners.

Once land is allocated, or close to it, owners usually choose between three routes:

1. Sale. You sell now, for a price that reflects the allocation and the planning risk still left.
2. Option. A developer pays for the right to buy within an agreed period, usually at a price linked to market value once permission is granted.
3. Promotion agreement. A promoter secures permission, then sells the land on the open market and shares the proceeds.

A joint venture is a fourth route for owners who want a share of the finished scheme. Our guide to option vs promotion agreement vs joint venture compares all three agreements in detail.

Which route pays you more depends on what a developer could build and sell on your land, and at what cost. Send us the address for a free land appraisal. Our builders price a scheme for the site, so you can weigh all four routes on real numbers. This is a developer's view, not a RICS valuation.