27 October 2026  |  View this in your browser

Featured updates

Local Plan Call for Sites closes 30 November

The Call for Sites to support the new Somerset Local Plan will close for submissions on 30 November 2026.

This latest Call for Sites opened in June 2026 to allow further sites to be submitted to us. During this time, landowners, developers and site promoters are invited to submit land they want to develop.

We then assess each site’s suitability, availability and achievability. This process is crucial for gathering information to help create the new Somerset Local Plan, following national policy and guidance.

This Call for Sites will close to allow available sites to be assessed, these will inform an updated Housing and Economic Land Availability Assessment (HELAA) Report.

The Call for Sites is just one of many ways we gather information for this process and will help decide which sites might be considered in future Local Plan consultations.

The updated HELAA Report is expected to be published alongside the next stage of Local Plan consultation, currently planned for September 2027.

If you're planning on submitting a site, you must do so by 30 November 2026 for it to be included in the updated HELAA Report or in consideration for the Local Plan. Further guidance on how to submit and a link to the submission portal is available on our Call for Sites webpage.

Any sites previously submitted in the 2025 Call for Sites, do not need to be resubmitted.

The submission of a site is not a planning application and its inclusion within the HELAA Report does not grant planning permission or any other status.

Local Plan Updates

Employment Land Review

The review looks at whether Somerset has enough land for offices, industry, warehousing and logistics up to 2045. It found that, overall, there appears to be enough land to meet forecast demand, but the right land also needs to be available in the right places and be suitable and deliverable for businesses. This is part of the evidence base that will help shape the Somerset Local Plan, including decisions about how much employment land is needed, where new sites may be required and whether existing allocations should continue. The review does not allocate sites itself. Potential sites will be assessed through the Local Plan process, alongside infrastructure, environmental and other considerations, and will be subject to public consultation.

5-Year Housing Land Supply Published

We've published our latest 5-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) report, base date 1 April 2026.

The report assesses the supply of deliverable housing sites expected to come forward over the next 5 years and also includes projected housing delivery for years 6 to 10 and, where possible, years 11 to 15.

The report is currently prepared for the former district areas while work on the new Somerset Local Plan continues. It also identifies a substantial pipeline of future housing development that is expected to contribute towards meeting Somerset's long-term housing needs.

The current 5YHLS position is:

• Area East (former Mendip) 3.12 years
• Area North (former Sedgemoor) 3.31 years
• Area South (former South Somerset) 3.03 years
• Area West (former Taunton Deane) 3.88 years
• Area West (former West Somerset) 3.58 years

As none of the former district areas can currently demonstrate a 5YHLS of deliverable housing sites, this will be a material consideration in the determination of planning applications for housing development.