Five-year supply of housing land and Housing Delivery Test
Planning authorities should make sure that there is a regular supply of land that is suitable, available and deliverable for housing development.
The government requires Councils to significantly boost the supply of new homes. This involves looking forward for at least 5 years (supply), known as the 5-year housing land supply position. It also involves reviewing the previous 3 years (delivery), known as the Housing Delivery Test (HDT).
Five-year housing land supply
Housing land supply statements are prepared by the Council to help predict the amount of housing that will be built in the district over the next five years. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires all local planning authorities (LPAs) to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years' worth of housing against their housing requirement.
These statements identify how many dwellings already have planning permission but have not yet been built. This allows us to compare the requirement for new homes in the district with the deliverable supply, to establish the number of years of supply that are available. Allowances are made for some sites that have not yet secured planning permission, but where it is highly likely that development will take place in the next five years.
Latest housing land supply position
At the time of preparing the latest Statement, the Council met the criteria to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.
The Council's most up-to-date monitoring shows a deliverable supply of 4,107 dwellings over the next five years. When measured against the standard method requirement* of 536 dwellings per annum, plus a 5% buffer - this equates to 7.3 years of supply. For transparency, the equivalent position using the Local Plan requirement of 557 dwellings per annum (plus a 5% buffer, as confirmed through the Local Plan examination) has also been calculated, demonstrating 7.0 years of supply.
Both approaches confirm that North Norfolk can demonstrate a deliverable five-year housing land supply.
*Based on the 2021 version of the National Planning Policy Framework, which continues to apply during the transition to the new Local Plan
Nutrient pollution requirements
In 2022, Natural England advised us that in large parts of the district, we should only grant planning permissions for new dwellings if it is shown they do not add to nutrient pollution levels in the River Wensum or Norfolk Broads, see nutrient neutrality. As a result of those requirements, the Norfolk authorities, including North Norfolk, have been unable to grant many new planning permissions in the affected areas, pending the identification of measures and mitigations to make sure new housing development does not add additional nutrients to designated water sources. The Council has had to adjust its housing delivery expectations to take account of the inevitable delays.
Housing Delivery Test (HDT)
The Housing Delivery Test is an annual measurement of housing delivery in local authority areas (excluding the Broads National Park). The HDT looks at how many new homes have been delivered over the previous three years. It measures this against the number of new homes that should have been delivered. Results are published by the government each year and are expressed as a percentage of local housing need.
The percentage rate determines the policy consequences that apply when housing delivery falls below the requirement, as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
HDT results
The latest Housing Delivery Test results were published by the government on 17 August 2026, when the 2024 and 2025 measurements were published together. The 2025 result is the most up-to-date assessment and supersedes the 2024 measurement for decision-making purposes.
The 2025 result for North Norfolk is 54%. This means the Council is required to prepare an action plan and apply a 20% buffer to its five-year housing land supply. Under the National Planning Policy Framework, a result below 75% also means that an evidenced unmet need for housing is deemed to exist for the purposes of applying NPPF Policy S5(1)(j).
Related documents
Visit the monitoring section of the document library to view the Council's housing land supply statements.
Further information
Housing supply and delivery | GOV.UK
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