Guidance

Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement technical note

Published 17 August 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

This document sets out the technical process followed in order to calculate the 2025 Housing Delivery Test measurement in line with the published Housing Delivery Test rule book.

This document should be read alongside the Housing Delivery Test rule book and aims to explain how this year’s result has been calculated with a step-by-step explanation of the process as opposed to setting out the policy in detail.

All terminology in this document mirrors that contained in the Housing Delivery Test rule book.

The Housing Delivery Test measurement is published annually by the department. The Housing Delivery Test period covers the previous three financial years; in the case of the 2025 measurement, the years are 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25.

The Housing Delivery Test compares the net homes delivered over three years to the homes required over the same period.

Housing Delivery Test (%) =

Total net homes delivered over 3 year period

divided by

Total number of homes required over 3 year period

The calculation uses published statistics and data collected by the department from local planning authorities, National Parks, and Development Corporations for this purpose.

Calculating the homes required

To calculate the total net homes required over the 3-year monitoring period, the calculations draw on:

• Local housing need. This is calculated using the previous version of the standard method for calculating housing need in the Housing and Economic Needs Assessment Planning Practice Guidance updated on 16 December 2020. In order to calculate the minimum annual housing need figure using the standard method, MHCLG use the following inputs:
  • The projected average annual household growth over a 10-year period based on 2014-based household projections for all test years.
  • For the 2022/23 measurement year, adjustment for affordability using the 2021 affordability ratio published 23 March 2022. For the 2023/24 measurement year, adjustment for affordability using the 2022 affordability ratio published 22 March 2023. For the 2024/25 measurement year, adjustment for affordability using the 2023 affordability ratio published 24 March 2024.
  • An appropriate cap based on the local authority’s plan status on 1 April 2022 for the 2022/23 measurement year, on 1 April 2023 for the 2023/24 measurement year, and 1 April 2024 for the 2024/25 measurement year (where applicable).
  • For all measurement years the cities and urban centres uplift within the standard method applies.
• Local plan information^{[footnote 1]} from both the most recent local plan and the previous local plan. Only local plans that set out an authority’s housing requirement are used. Data collected includes: the adoption date, start date, end date, housing requirements including trajectories, joint plan requirements, traveller requirements, and whether the plan has been reviewed and the outcome of this review (see Plan Reviews).
• Current London Plan annual averages 2019-2029^{[footnote 2]}.
• Plan Reviews – In order to determine whether a plan review^{[footnote 3]}, that concludes that policies do not require updating, has been satisfied for the purposes of the Housing Delivery Test, the authority must have^{[footnote 4]}:
  • Published an assessment of the strategic housing requirement policy (or policies) within 5 years of adoption of such policies; and
  • As part of the review concluded that such policies do not require updating.

Given the wide-ranging status and characteristics of local plans across England, the exact process to calculate results varied. The below sets out the steps taken for all authorities and then goes through individual steps taken contingent on the plan status and characteristics which affect the application of the Housing Delivery Test.

For every local planning authority, the following steps were taken:

1. For every local planning authority, the standard method is used (as set out above) in all test years.

2. In some cases, local housing need may be negative for one or more of the years being tested. In these instances, all three years (including negative values) are summed. If the 3-year summed result is a negative value, this is set to zero. If the sum of the 3 years is positive (despite one or more negative years), the figure is not changed.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for an authority without an ‘up to date’ ^{[footnote 5]} local plan the following steps were taken:

3. The housing requirement is based on the local housing need for each year. Since there is no ‘up to date’ local plan, the ‘lower of’ policy does not change the total number of homes required. The exception to this is where the authority is covered by a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) (see ‘London Boroughs’).

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for an authority with an ‘up to date’ local plan for the entire Housing Delivery Test period the following steps were taken:

4. The ‘homes required’ figure is based on the annual average from the most recent plan for each year. If the local plan includes a stepped requirement, then the annual average from the stepped requirement corresponding to the relevant period is used.

5. The number of homes required each year is based on the lower of the housing requirement in local plans or local housing need. This is carried out for each of the three years.

6. The final number of homes required sums each year’s lower figure to calculate the 3-year total number of homes required.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for an authority with a plan which is partially ‘up to date’ during the Housing Delivery Test period the following steps were taken:

7. The ‘homes required’ figure is based on the annual average from the most recent plan for each year. If the local plan includes a stepped requirement, then the annual average from the requirement corresponding to the relevant period is used, and the steps below are applied in the same way.

8. If the plan becomes ‘out of date’ then from this point onwards the housing requirement is based on local housing need depending on the test year.

9. If the plan becomes ‘out of date’ midway through a year, a weighted average for that year is calculated. This means that for as many days that the plan was ‘up to date’ within a test year, the annual average is used. For the remainder of the year, local housing need is used.

10. The number of homes required each year over the 3-year period is based on the ‘lower of’ the housing requirement or local housing need for each year.

11. In this instance, the housing requirement in a given test year could be:

a. The annual average from the plan (if the plan is ‘up to date’ for the full year).
b. A weighted average of the annual average from the plan and local housing need (if the plan is only ’up to date’ for part of the year).
c. Local housing need (if the plan is ‘out of date’ for the full year).

12. The final number of homes required sums each year’s lower figure to calculate the 3-year total number of homes required.

13. Similar to the above, if an authority adopts a plan which covers the latter part of the Housing Delivery Test period (then prior to the period the plan covers), local housing need is used. From the point following the plan start date, the housing target from this is used (using the relevant stepped requirement where appropriate). The ‘lower of’ policy is applied in the same way, comparing the housing requirement in each year to local housing need.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for an authority with a previous plan which was ’up to date’ for part of the Housing Delivery Test period and whose current plan was ‘up to date’ for part of the Housing Delivery Test period, the following steps were taken:

14. If the previous plan is ‘up to date’ for part of the Housing Delivery Test period, but the current plan start date encompasses the Housing Delivery Test period that the previous plan covered, the most recent plan is used and the previous plan is not.

15. If the previous plan is ‘up to date’ for part of the Housing Delivery Test period and this period does not overlap with the current plan, then the previous plan is used for as long as it is valid. After this period, the most recent plan is used.

16. If there is a period where there is no plan, then local housing need  is used for this period.

17. Where the periods above do not align with a test year, a weighted average for that year is calculated. This means that, for as many days that the previous plan was ‘up to date’ within a test year, the annual average from that plan is used. For the remainder of the year, either the current plan or local housing need (depending on the status of the current plan) is used.

18. The ‘lower of’ policy for each year is applied based on the housing requirement and local housing need. The final number of homes required sums each year’s lower figure to calculate the 3-year total number of homes required.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for a London borough including Development Corporations with full plan making and decision-making powers, the following steps were taken:

19. London Boroughs are treated the same as other authorities except, where there is no ‘up to date’ local plan, the most recently adopted London Plan annual average^{[footnote 6]} is deferred to. In the instance where the London Plan becomes over five years old, local housing need was used as the basis of requirement. If a new London Plan is adopted / published, the new adopted housing requirement will apply from the start of the relevant plan period (as set out in the strategic policies for housing), which may be earlier than the adoption of the strategic policies. If a London Borough has a previous plan that was ‘up to date’ for part of the Housing Delivery Test period, then this plan is used for the period it applies.

20. If the borough plan becomes ‘out of date’ midway through the year, a weighted average for that year is calculated. This means that, for as many days that the plan was ‘up to date’ within a test year, the annual average is used. For the remainder of the year, the annual borough average from the London Plan is used.

21. Similar to step 20, if the borough plan and London Plan both become ‘out of date’ part way through the year, the requirement for the remainder of the year is local housing need.

22. If the borough plan includes a stepped requirement, the annual average from the requirement corresponding to the relevant period is used, and the steps above are applied in the same way.

23. The number of homes required each year over the 3-year period is based on the ‘lower of’ the housing requirement or local housing need in each year.

24. In this instance, the ‘homes required’ figure in a given test year could be one of the following:

a. The annual average from the borough plan (if the plan is ‘up to date’ for the full year).
b. Annual borough average from the ‘up to date’ London Plan (if the borough plan is not ‘up to date’ for the full year).
c. A weighted average of the average from the borough plan and annual borough average from the current London Plan (if the plan is only ‘up to date’ for part of the year).
d. A weighted average of the annual average from the previous boroughs plan and the weighted average from the current borough plan (if the previous plan is ‘up to date’ for part of the period, and the current borough plan follows directly from this, or its plan period predates the expiry of the previous plan).
e. A weighted average of the average from the previous borough plan and the annual borough average from the current London Plan (if the previous plan is ‘up to date’ for part of the year and there is no current borough plan to cover the rest of the test year period).
f. A weighted average of the annual average from the previous borough plan, the borough average from the current London Plan and the average from the current borough plan (if the previous plan is ‘up to date’ for part of the period, the current borough plan follows indirectly from this meaning the London Plan is relied on in the interim period).
g. A weighted average of the average from the previous borough plan, the current borough plan, the current London Plan, and then local housing need; if the previous borough plan, current borough plan and London Plan are all ‘out of date’ for part of the period, then local housing need is relied on to cover the rest of the test period.

25. The final number of homes required is the sum of each year’s lower figure to calculate the 3-year total number of homes required.

26. For the 2025 Housing Delivery Test, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) is no longer included in the measurement. Following the dissolution of LLDC, no separate Housing Delivery Test score is calculated for this area. Housing delivery and requirements previously attributed to LLDC are now incorporated within the relevant local planning authority boundaries, in accordance with the updated governance arrangements. Where data was previously collected or reported for LLDC, this is no longer published or scored separately for the purposes of the Housing Delivery Test.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for authorities covered by a joint plan with a joint requirement the steps below were taken:

27. Where authorities have an ‘up to date’ joint plan and are being measured jointly for the purpose of the Housing Delivery Test, the housing requirement set out in the joint plan is used.

28. If the joint plan becomes ‘out of date’ during the test period, then a weighted average for the year is calculated; using the joint plan annual average housing requirement up to this point and from then onwards the total local housing need across all of the component local authorities is used.

29. In all test years the local housing need figure for joint plan authorities is used.

30. For each individual year that the joint annual housing requirement is greater than the joint local housing need, the lower figure is used.

31. The final number of homes required sums each year’s lower figure to calculate the 3-year total number of homes required.

In addition to steps 1 and 2, for authorities that have recently reorganised to form new unitary or single-tier authorities, the steps below were taken:

32. Local authorities who formed new unitary authorities can now choose to have their Housing Delivery Test results published using their former authority boundaries or their new unitary boundaries for the purpose of the measurement until the fifth anniversary of the new authority’s existence^{[footnote 7]}. Local authorities have the option to choose either approach over this period. For the 2025 Housing Delivery Test, there are no new unitary authorities.

33. To calculate the ‘homes required’ for these areas, steps 1 and 2 (and as appropriate steps 3 to 31) were carried out based on the predecessor authority boundaries. The homes required for the predecessor areas was then added together to produce a ‘homes required’ for the whole of the reorganised authority. Following reorganisation, national statistics are published at the new unitary authority level. However, affordability ratios at predecessor^{[footnote 8]} authority levels are published by the ONS; these were used to calculate Local Housing Need for the test year 2022/23 (as of 1 April 2022), test year 2023/24 (as of 1 April 2023) and test year 2024/25 (as of 1 April 2024) for recently reorganised authorities.

The housing requirement for travellers:

In addition to steps 1 and 2 and the relevant process depending on local plan status, where applicable the requirement for traveller accommodation^{[footnote 9]} is added to the housing requirement.

This addition takes place prior to the application of the “lower of” policy which compares the housing requirement (containing the travellers housing requirement) and the local housing need, choosing the lower for each year as the number of homes required for that test year.

The traveller’s accommodation requirement is calculated through the steps below:

34. The traveller accommodation requirement is based on the traveller’s annual average from the most recent plan for each year. If the local plan contains no traveller’s requirement, then no adjustment is made.

35. Where there is a traveller’s requirement, and the plan becomes no longer ‘up to date’, then from this point onwards the traveller’s adjustment is no longer made.

36. If the plan is no longer ‘up to date’ midway through a year, then for as many days that the plan was ‘up to date’ within a test year, the travellers annual average is used (apportioned based on how many days this was ‘up to date’). For the remainder of the year, no traveller’s housing requirement is added.

37. If the local plan includes a stepped requirement for the traveller’s requirement, then the annual average from the requirement corresponding to the relevant period is used, and the steps above are applied in the same way.

Using data from local plans adopted since the data collection

38. At the start of 2026, data was collected by MHCLG to carry out the 2025 Housing Delivery Test. Since that time, some local planning authorities may have adopted new housing requirements in local plans that can be used for the 2025 measurement.

39. Paragraphs 16 – 18 of the Housing Delivery Test rule book provide local planning authorities an opportunity to collaborate with MHCLG to have previous Housing Delivery Test results recalculated.

Calculating the homes delivered

To calculate the total net homes delivered over the 3-year monitoring period the calculations draw on:

• Net additional dwellings by local authority district, England 2001-02 to 2023/24.^{[footnote 10]}.
• Housing supply: communal accommodation, component flows by local authority district, England 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 (published as part of the Housing supply; net additional dwellings, England release^{[footnote 11]}.
• Number of students in student only households by the number of bedrooms where all students are aged 18 and over: Office for National Statistics based on 2021 census^{[footnote 12]}.
• Age of Household Reference Person by number of adults in household where all household reference persons are aged 16 and over: Office for National Statistics based on 2021 census^{[footnote 13]}.
• Data supplied to the department by local planning authorities and National Parks about the number of homes within a local planning authority boundary that were delivered in a National Park, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25; and
• Data supplied to the department by the local planning authorities about housing completions in Development Corporation boundaries.

To calculate the homes delivered, the steps taken were:

1. For each local planning authority, net additional dwellings for the test years are used as the starting point. These are then adjusted in several ways.

2. For each authority, estimate the number of net dwellings that is equivalent to the net additional student and other communal accommodation built over the 3-year period. This is calculated by dividing each authority’s student bedrooms annual net change by the national ratio of student bedspaces per household (2.4) and each authority’s other communal bedrooms annual net change by the national ratio of communal bedspaces per household (1.9).

3. Adjust the net additional dwellings for each authority by the annual estimate of the number of dwellings which would be required in the absence of the net communal accommodation bedrooms change.

4. For the local planning authorities whose local authority boundaries overlap with a National Park^{[footnote 14]}, either:

a. Remove the net additional homes delivered in the National Park^{[footnote 15]} each year from the net additional dwellings statistics, where the local plan contains a district-specific housing requirement which excludes the National Park area; or

b. If tested against local housing need (when the plan is ‘out of date’ or by virtue of the ‘lower of’ policy), or their local plan has a joint housing requirement with the National Park, do not apply any adjustment to the net additional dwellings statistic for the local authority.

5. For those authorities who have a joint plan with a joint requirement and have chosen to have their Housing Delivery Test calculated jointly, in addition to Steps 1 to 4 above, the ‘homes delivered’ (for the individual local authorities) was summed to provide a delivery total for the whole joint plan area.

6. For those authorities who reorganised and are being scored together, steps 1 to 3 (and step 4 if appropriate) were followed:

• in years where the net additional dwellings statistics were published at the predecessor authority boundaries, these were summed to give delivery for the newly formed authority; and
• in years where the net additional dwellings statistics for the new unitary or single-tier authority was published at the new authority level this was used

7. For those authorities that have reorganised to form a unitary authority or single-tier authority and are being scored separately the following steps were taken:

• in years where the net additional dwellings statistics were published at the predecessor authority boundary, these figures were used to calculate delivery for each predecessor authority
• in years where net additions were published at unitary authority level, a separate data collection was carried out by MHCLG to disaggregate the net additional dwellings statistics to the predecessor boundaries

8. For the local planning authorities whose boundaries overlap with a development corporation, for the periods that the local planning authority’s delivery is based on the London Plan or the Current Borough Plan, the net homes delivered in the development corporation are removed from the net additional dwellings statistics based on the data provided to the department by the Greater London Authority.

9. The London Plan gives separate plan numbers for the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation. This means, where the borough’s requirement is based on the London Plan, this will not include the homes to be delivered in the development corporation. Similarly, if the borough has its own plan adopted after the 2021 London Plan, its housing requirement will not include homes to be delivered in the development corporation.

10. However, Local Housing Need cannot be calculated for a development corporation. As such, a borough’s Local Housing Need will include these homes. Consequently, the adjustment to net additional dwellings, removing those homes delivered in the development corporation, would not apply only for the period where the requirement is based on LHN. For the periods where housing requirement is based on the 2021 London Plan or a more recent borough plan, neither the housing requirement nor the net additional dwellings include the homes in the development corporation.

11. If the borough’s requirement is based on different sources within a test year (for example, LHN and then the borough average from the London Plan) then the removal of net additional dwellings each year is scaled to the proportion of the year that the London Plan is relied upon for the housing requirement.

12. The final measure of the homes delivered is the sum of the annual net additional dwellings adjusted for National Park and Development Corporation delivery and the estimated net change in the dwelling stock due to the change in communal accommodation bedrooms.

Calculating the results

The result for each authority is based on their number of homes required over the 3-year period and the adjusted net additional homes delivered over the same period.

In all cases, the requirement for the number of homes is based on the ‘lower of’ their annual housing requirement (based on the local plan status and characteristics) or local housing need. The lower figures in all years are summed to calculate the number of homes required over the total 3-year period for the purpose of the Housing Delivery Test.

The annual net additional dwellings statistic adjusted for National Park and Development Corporation delivery, and the change in communal accommodation bedrooms are summed to calculate the total number of homes delivered over the three years for the purpose of the Housing Delivery Test.

Comparing these two totals gives the individual Housing Delivery test for a given authority, joint plan, merged authority or development corporation:

Housing Delivery Test (%) =

Total net homes delivered over 3 year period

divided by

Total number of homes required over 3 year period

In cases where the total number of homes required is zero (or less), the Housing Delivery Test result is undefined, and no consequences apply.

1. The department collected local plan information from authorities using DELTA webform. In some instances, the information as submitted was adapted for the 2023 Housing Delivery Test measurement and decisions about what information to use were decided on a case-by-case basis. ↩

2. See Policy H1, pages 157-165 of the 2021 London Plan. ↩

3. Regulation 10A of The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended) requires local planning authorities to assess whether their local plan remains up to date at least every five years from adoption. ↩

4. Please note: any conclusion reached on a plan review relates solely to whether a review has been carried out, so that MHCLG can calculate the Housing Delivery Test (as set out in paragraph 12 and footnote 8 of the Housing Delivery Test Rule Book). Any such conclusion does not indicate that the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government endorses or makes any other judgement on status of a particular plan, or review for decision or plan making purposes. ↩

5. An ‘up to date plan’ for the purposes of the Housing Delivery Test is a plan with an adopted housing requirement which is less than five years old or is older than five years old and has been reviewed and found not to require updating.
   *‘Out of date’ for the purpose of the Housing Delivery Test, is a plan with an adopted housing requirement which is five years old or older and: has not been reviewed or a review has been carried out after the 5-year deadline or a plan review has found that the strategic housing policies require updating. ↩

6. The London Plan figure remains valid for 5 years from the date of adoption, even where the plan is undergoing a revision. ↩

7. See Written Ministerial Statement laid out by the Housing Minister on 6 September 2021. ↩

8. House price to workplace-based earnings ratio for former local authorities - Office for National Statistics ↩

9. Meeting the definition in Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (December 2023). ↩

10. As defined in the Housing Flow Reconciliation guidance. Net additions measure the absolute increase in stock between one year and the next, including other losses and gains (such as conversions, changes of use and demolitions). ↩

11. Housing Supply: net additional dwellings: Communal Accommodation (Bedspaces) 2020-21, 21-22, 22-23 Table 124 ↩

12. Used to calculate the national average number of adult students living in a student only household where all students are aged 18 and over (2.4). This table specifically commissioned for this purpose, is published by the ONE here: CT21_0306_Census 2021 - Office for National Statistics. ↩

13. Used to calculate the national average number of adults living in a household where all Household Reference Persons are aged 16 and over (1.9). This table, specifically commissioned for this purpose, is published by the ONS here: CT21_0307_Census 2021 - Office for National Statistics. ↩

14. Household growth and local housing need are set at local authority level, containing the district local planning authority and part of National Park planning authority. ↩

15. As provided to the department by local planning authorities and National Parks. ↩