Savills has applied a standard five-year land supply calculation to all local authorities in England using the LPA published supply figures and categorised each based on this result (as indicated on the map).

click image below to enlarge

^{Source: Savills Research}

This allows a like-for-like comparison between authorities and echoes the arguments being used in appeals based on five-year land supply across the country. Our calculation works as follows:

1. Current five-year requirement (taking the first available data source from the following list)

a. Post-NPPF local plan target (where Local Plan adopted post March 2012)

b. SHMA figure (midpoint if a range) (where published after March 2012)

c. Average of 2008/2011/2012 household projections

2. Historic shortfall – target and start point (to match selection above)

a. Post-NPPF local plan target, from plan start date

b. Post-March 2012 SHMA figure, from emerging plan start date (if there is one)

c. Former Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) target, from RSS start date

3. Historic shortfall – completions from DCLG net additional dwellings data

4. Subtract ‘3’ from ‘2’ for shortfall add to five-year requirement (known as the Sedgefield method)

5. Apply buffer (5% or 20% depending on authority statement) to requirement AND shortfall

6. Then calculate five-year supply based on these figures (based on LPA quoted land availability – from SHLAA and/or AMR) – we are not questioning deliverability of the stated land supply in this exercise.