County Durham Plan - Call for Sites
The first stage in the process to prepare a new County Durham Plan is to carry out a Call for Sites.
What is a Call for Sites?
This is an opportunity for landowners, developers and other interested parties to suggest sites in the county that may have potential for future development.
Who can get involved?
Anyone can submit a site for consideration including landowners, developers and agents, parish and town councils, local residents, community groups and public sector bodies.
If you know of land that could support future development, we encourage you to take part.
What types of sites are we looking for?
We are interested in a wide range of site types, including:
- land for housing (including affordable or specialist housing)
- employment land (for example offices, industrial, logistics)
- mixed-use developments
- land for renewable energy, community facilities, or green infrastructure
- land for minerals and waste sites
Please note the Call for Sites process is separate to the planning application process. The submission of a site for consideration does not necessarily mean that the site will be taken forward. It is often the case that more sites will be submitted at this stage than are needed to meet the future needs of the area.
What information is required?
Please provide as much detail as possible in your submission, including:
- current land use and ownership
- proposed use(s)
- site constraints or known issues
- availability and timescales for development
The call for sites is open until Friday 5 September 2025.
Submissions received after the deadline may not be considered in the initial assessment phase.
Phases
Next steps - analysing the proposed sites
Once the call for sites has closed, we will start work on the process of assessing them. This includes assessing all submitted sites against planning criteria, including suitability, availability, and achievability and seeking advice from both internal and external specialists on a range of matters from flooding and heritage to impact on the local roads, schools and ecology.
If we need any clarification on any matters, or the submission of further information, we will get in touch with the proposer.
We will also:
- Publish a Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) to show which sites have potential for development.
- Use the evidence to help shape the emerging County Durham Plan, including identifying preferred sites for allocation.
Once we’ve completed the initial assessment of submitted sites, we’ll ask for your views on a proposed vision for the area and the possible locations for future development. This will happen during a public consultation in Spring 2026 as part of the next stage of developing the new County Durham Plan.