Publishing your local plan housing requirement
Local planning authorities (LPAs) must calculate and publish local plan housing requirement data.
Applies to England
This guidance relates to The Planning Data (England) Regulations 2026 which have a commencement date of 7 May 2026. You may follow this guidance before that date.
For plans under the legacy plan-making system
If you are submitting your plan under the legacy system, use the create or update a local plan legacy system guidance.
The legacy system covers plans to be adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, excluding the amendments made by the LURA, and The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026).
All LPAs must meet the approved data standard on housing requirement data when the data standard comes into effect. This will help people understand how many homes the local plan expects to provide during the plan period.
Calculate your housing requirement
You should calculate your requirement using the housing policies in the National Planning Policy Framework. You can find out more about:
What to publish
You must publish your requirement on your website when you launch your consultation on your proposed local plan.
You must re-publish your requirement when you:
- submit your plan for examination
- publish the examiner’s recommendations and reasons
- when you publish your adopted local plan
Find out how to publish your local plan data and meet the approved data standard.
We will publish more information about how to monitor your local plan after adoption soon.
Terms
Housing requirement
The minimum number of homes that a local plan expects to be provided during the plan period.
Plan period
The plan period refers to the time between the plan’s start year and end year. The plan must last a minimum of 15 years from the date of adoption, even if the start year is before the adoption year.