Unlike District Councils, National Park Authorities do not have housing targets which need to be met and the demand for development is determined by the needs of the local community in balance with the requirement to conserve and enhance the National Park’s special qualities.

We would allocate land through our local plan; a Neighbourhood Plan may also allocate land. We currently only allocate land for development in the larger settlements. Housing Needs Assessments provide evidence of the housing need for a particular settlement or Parish, and therefore whether land needs to be identified. We then look at the different sites which may be available; the starting point for this process is the latest Land Availability Assessment.  We will assess potential sites by looking at a wide variety of issues such as topography, flood risk, access, density, landscape character, biodiversity, cultural heritage etc., as well as taking into account the views of the community and any other stakeholders.  The local plan may then identify a site(s) which could come forward to meet the identified need.  A planning application would still then be needed to assess the detailed design of the development.