Fact Sheet: Data Layers Explained

A data layer is a dataset that can be switched on or off in the Explorer.

When activated, it appears as a colour-coded overlay on the map, helping you understand what might affect, constrain, or enhance a site.

Layers are organised into themed bundles. You can activate as many layers as you like at the same time, and the map will update instantly as you toggle them on and off.

💡 LandTech Tip: Add layers gradually when working with multiple datasets. Switching them on one at a time makes it much easier to see how each dataset affects your understanding of the site.

Use policy constraint layers to understand the planning context and legal protections that may affect a site's development potential.

Listed buildings are structures of special architectural or historic interest, protected by law and added to a national register. Alterations require listed building consent. Heritage land contains designated heritage assets (including listed buildings, scheduled monuments, and similar) also protected to conserve the historic environment.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw

Updated: Monthly

Legally defined places of special architectural or historic interest, designated by local authorities. Development within conservation areas is subject to additional scrutiny to preserve or enhance their character.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Historic England, Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland, Local Authorities

Updated: Annually

Areas of protected open land around towns and cities, designated to prevent urban sprawl, preserve the natural environment, and maintain the character of rural communities. A strong planning presumption against development applies.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Local Authorities, Scottish Government

Updated: Annually

Sites designated for their environmental, ecological, or cultural importance. Includes Ancient Woodland, National Nature Reserves, Ramsar Sites, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Local Nature Reserves, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). Locally protected areas include Sites of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (LINC), Borough Importance for Nature Conservation (BINC), and Areas of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, plus Biosphere Reserves, Heritage Coasts, and Common Land.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Natural England, SEPA, NRW, Scottish Government, Local Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designated to conserve and enhance their landscape and protect them from unsuitable development. Strong planning controls apply within these designations.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Natural England, NRW

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Areas of undeveloped land, parks, or recreational spaces valued for nature, leisure, or community use. Includes Metropolitan Open Land, which is protected urban open space where development is tightly restricted.

Filters: Metropolitan Open Land: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: London Datastore, Local Planning Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Defined edges of towns and villages, used in local plans to guide development and prevent urban sprawl into surrounding countryside. Development beyond a settlement boundary typically requires strong justification.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities (adopted and emerging local plans)

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Planning restrictions that remove certain permitted development rights, requiring full planning permission for changes that would otherwise be automatically allowed. Sub-types include Class MA (commercial-to-residential conversions), Conversion of Single Dwellings to HMO, Other, and Unknown.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Land reserved in local plans for specific future uses (such as minerals, waste, or strategic infrastructure) where premature or incompatible development is restricted.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities (adopted and emerging local plans)

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Designated viewing corridors and sight lines protected from obstruction, particularly common in London and other heritage-sensitive areas. Development that would harm a protected view is likely to be refused.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Legally protected public paths and routes across land, including footpaths, bridleways, and byways, that must be accounted for in any development proposal.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities and other public sources

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Legal protections on individual trees, groups of trees, or woodlands. Felling or significant works to a protected tree requires specific consent from the local authority.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: HM Land Registry, planning.data.gov.uk, Local Planning Authorities, LandTech planning database

Updated: As new councils join the HMLR LLC programme

Sites owned or managed by Homes England, the government's housing delivery agency. Includes Pipeline sites (advance notice of sites coming to market within the next 6 months), On Market, and Sold STC, covering land released where private developers alone cannot deliver.

Filters: Pipeline, On Market, Sold STC

Source: Homes England

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Use strategic layers to understand the broader development context for an area, including local plan status, land allocations, and emerging opportunities like grey belt and brownfield land.

Shows the council or body responsible for planning decisions in a given area, including Former Local Planning Authorities (following boundary reorganisations) and National Parks (which have their own planning authority). Display options allow you to view areas by Presumption in Favour of development or Call for Sites submissions.

Filters: Local plans older than 10 years; Housing land supply remaining less than 10 years; Housing Delivery Test (percentage or less)

Source: Local Planning Authorities, Planning Inspectorate, Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities

Updated: Boundaries annually; local plan and housing delivery status as soon as updates are available; housing land supply tracked and updated monthly

Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments identify sites with potential for housing development. Sites are classified as Positive (suitable for development), Neutral (potentially suitable), or Negative (currently unsuitable).

Source: Local Authorities

Updated: As soon as a new SHLAA, HELAA, or SHELAA document is published

Land formally designated for development in adopted or emerging local plans. Includes Residential Allocations (sites designated for housing) and Site Allocations for mixed use, commercial, employment, community, or uncategorised purposes.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities (adopted and emerging local plans)

Updated: When new emerging plans are published or when emerging plans are adopted

A LandTech-built ranking that helps identify potential Grey Belt land (previously developed or low-impact areas within the Green Belt) where development may be more acceptable under emerging policy. Ranked as More Favourable, Average Favourability, or Less Favourable, based on factors including land use, connectivity, local housing affordability, and amenities.

Filters: More Favourable, Average Favourability, Less Favourable

Source: LandTech (proprietary model)

Updated: As underlying datasets are refreshed

Previously developed sites identified on the statutory Brownfield Register. These sites are generally considered suitable for redevelopment, and local authorities are expected to prioritise them for housing.

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (sourced and collated from individual local authorities, cleaned by LandTech)

Updated: Annually (all authorities must publish updated data by 31 December; LandTech aims to update by end of January)

Areas formally targeted for redevelopment or renewal, including Area Action Plans and named regeneration projects. Useful for identifying areas with active public sector investment or development momentum.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities (adopted and emerging local plans)

Updated: When new emerging plans are published or when emerging plans are adopted

Land allocated for business, industrial, or commercial use in local plans. Development that would result in the loss of employment land typically requires justification.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Local Planning Authorities (adopted and emerging local plans)

Updated: When new emerging plans are published or when emerging plans are adopted

Areas covered by community-prepared local plans that supplement the local authority's planning policies. Includes plans at all stages: Designated, Consultation, Examination, Passed/Failed Examination, Passed/Failed Referendum, and Plan Made.

Source: Planning Inspectorate

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Parts of the Green Belt that are no longer classified as protected, having been assessed as not significantly contributing to core Green Belt purposes. Highlights potential opportunities where land may be more suitable for development than typical Green Belt areas.

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Local Authorities

Updated: Annually

Locations of proposed new towns identified by the UK government's New Towns Taskforce. View key details for each location including area, number of planned homes, connectivity, and source documents to help assess potential opportunities or constraints.

Source: UK Government New Towns Taskforce

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) areas are sub-regional geographies, larger than a single local authority, that are required to produce long-term plans for growth. SDSs look ahead at least 20 years and set the framework for local plans, which must be in general conformity with the relevant SDS. For developers, this layer provides early visibility of how significantly the planning landscape may change within a given area over the coming decades, covering coordinated plans for housing, jobs, and infrastructure across wider areas.

The government's duty to produce SDSs comes into effect Summer 2026, in line with recent UK planning reforms.

Filters:

Available on: Unlimited plan only

Source: UK Government

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Use environmental layers to identify physical and ecological constraints that could affect a site's viability or increase development costs.

Environment Agency flood zone designations. Classifies areas by risk of river or tidal flooding. Flood Zone 2 indicates a medium probability of flooding and Flood Zone 3 indicates a high probability. Sites in Flood Zone 3 typically require a detailed Flood Risk Assessment and may face restrictions on certain types of development.

Filters: Flood Zone 2, Flood Zone 3; Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Environment Agency (Flood Zones 2 and 3)

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

General likelihood of flooding from rivers and the sea, categorised as Very Low, Low, Medium, or High risk, drawing on national and local flood modelling data.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Environment Agency, NRW, SEPA

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Shows the risk of flooding caused by rainfall and surface water runoff, essentially areas at risk of stormwater flooding. Available under two scenarios: Current conditions (Low, Medium, or High risk) and Climate Change projections (Low, Medium, or High risk), helping you assess both immediate and future flood exposure.

Filters: Surface Water Flooding (Current): Low, Medium, High; Surface Water Flooding (Climate Change): Low, Medium, High; Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Environment Agency

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Quality grading of farmland based on its productive potential. In England and Wales: Grade 1 (excellent), Grade 2 (very good), Grade 3a (good), Grade 3b (moderate), Grade 4 (poor), Grade 5 (very poor), and Non-agricultural. In Scotland: Grades 1 to 7 plus built-up areas, inland water, and unencoded islands. Grades 1, 2, and 3a are classified as best and most versatile agricultural land and carry additional weight in planning decisions.

Source: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, The James Hutton Institute (Scotland)

Updated: Annually

Visualises the physical form of the land. Display options include Slope (Flat, Gentle, Moderate, Steep, Very Steep, Prohibitively Steep), Aspect (the compass direction a slope faces, from North through North West), Hillshade, Contour, and Hillshade & Contour combined.

Source: Ordnance Survey

Updated: Not applicable (static dataset)

Highlights catchment areas where nutrient neutrality requirements apply, affecting residential development near certain protected water bodies. Developments in affected catchments must demonstrate that they will not increase nutrient loading.

Filters: Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Local Planning Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Shows areas where new development must demonstrate water neutrality, meaning it will not increase overall water consumption. Filter to see areas where offsetting is allowed and areas where it is not.

Filters: Offsetting allowed, No offsetting; Adopted, Emerging, Adopted & Emerging

Source: Environment Agency, Natural England, Local Authorities

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Displays historic coal mining activity and associated ground stability risk zones. Includes Mine Entries, Development High Risk Areas, Surface Mining, Past Shallow Coal Mining Workings, Probable Shallow Coal Mining Workings, and Coal Mining Reporting Areas.

Source: Coal Authority

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Covers three categories of biodiversity data. Biodiversity Improvement Areas include Habitat Networks (with sub-zones: Fragmentation Action Zone, Habitat Restoration-Creation, Network Enhancement Zones 1 and 2, Network Expansion Zone, and Restorable Habitat) and Nature Recovery Projects England. Spatial Risk Multipliers include National Character Areas, Operational Catchments, Water Body Catchments, and OS Open Rivers. Habitats include Ancient Tree Inventory, Spartina saltmarsh swards, Mediterranean saltmarsh scrub, Open Mosaic Habitats, and Priority Habitat Inventory (Blanket Bog, Lowland Ferns, Limestone Pavements, Coastal Sand Dunes).

Source: Natural England, Ordnance Survey, Environment Agency, The Woodland Trust

Updated: Monthly for most datasets; quarterly for National Character Areas, OS Open Rivers, Water Body Catchments, Operational Catchments, and Nature Recovery Projects; annually for Spartina Saltmarsh Sward

Use people and places layers to assess local amenities and demographic context, which is useful for understanding the suitability of a site for residential development and benchmarking against planning requirements.

Shows the location of local amenities and services. Educational Institutions include state and independent primary, secondary, and further education. Transport Stops include bus stops and rail stations (train and metro). Retail covers supermarkets and convenience stores. Healthcare includes GP surgeries, pharmacies, clinics, dentists, and hospitals.

Source: Edubase (Department for Education) for education; National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN) from the Department for Transport for transport; NHS for healthcare; Geolytix for retail

Updated: Education and healthcare annually; transport monthly; retail annually

Displays population and socio-economic data by output area. Available datasets include Median age, Population 65+, Population density, Population projection (5-year and 10-year), Income, Affordability, Deprivation (Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019), Employment status (full-time, part-time, unemployed, retired, student, economically inactive), Occupation type (routine/manual, intermediate, managerial/professional/administrative, students/never worked/long-term unemployed), Household size, and Dwelling density.

Source: ONS Census 2021, ONS, MHCLG, Ordnance Survey, Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC)

Updated: When new Census or ONS data is published; dwelling density annually

Use traffic and connectivity layers to assess road access and infrastructure context for a site.

Classifies roads by their maintenance responsibility: Maintained at Public Expense (publicly adopted roads), Prospectively Maintained at Public Expense (roads likely to be adopted), Not Maintained at Public Expense (private roads), and Unclassified.

Source: Local Planning Authorities and public sources

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Displays road classifications alongside recorded traffic count data. Motorways cover the high-speed national network. A Roads are primary roads connecting towns and cities. B Roads are secondary roads linking smaller areas. C & Unclassified Roads are minor or local roads, including unnumbered, unclassified, or unknown. Traffic count data is available for each road type.

Source: Department for Transport

Updated: Annually

Note:

We display road classifications alongside recorded traffic count data. Motorways cover the high-speed national network. A Roads are primary roads connecting towns and cities. B Roads are secondary roads linking smaller areas. C & Unclassified Roads are minor or local roads, including unnumbered, unclassified, or unknown. Traffic count data is available for each road type.

Traffic count data is sourced from the Department for Transport. Major roads (motorways and A roads) have data up to 2024. Minor roads currently only have data up to 2019. The date shown at the top of the traffic count panel reflects when the data was last processed, not necessarily when the traffic count was last carried out. DfT updates are expected in summer 2026 and this article will be updated when new data becomes available.

Use power and energy layers to understand electricity infrastructure and capacity near a site, which is particularly useful for residential, commercial, and renewable energy development.

Shows the licensed areas of Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), the regional companies responsible for distributing electricity from the national grid to homes and businesses. Useful for identifying which network operator manages the area around a site.

Source: Ofgem, individual DNOs

Updated: As soon as updates are made available

Sites generating or planning to generate energy from renewable sources. Categorised by type: Solar, Wind, Battery storage, and Other renewables.

Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Updated: Quarterly

Details of connected or planned energy generation capacity at a local level. Display by Connection Status (Connected, Accepted to Connect, Unknown), Primary Energy Source (Solar, Wind, Fossil Fuel, Biofuel & Biomass, Energy Storage, Other, Unknown), Connection Voltage Class (under 11kV, 11 to 33kV, 33 to 132kV, over 132kV, Unknown), and Licence Area (covering major UK distribution networks including National Grid Electricity Distribution, Eastern Power Networks, Northern Powergrid, Electricity North West, South Eastern Power Networks, Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks, and SP Energy Networks).

Source: Electricity North West, Northern Powergrid, SP Energy Networks, UK Power Networks, SSE, Western Power Distribution (now part of National Grid)

Updated: Daily

Electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure displayed by voltage class: Low Voltage (under 1kV), High Voltage (1 to 32kV), Extra High Voltage (33 to 132kV), Transmission (over 132kV), and Unknown. Covers underground cables, overhead lines, and towers.

Source: UK Power Networks

Updated: Quarterly

Electricity distribution substations displayed by RAG (Red, Amber, Green) capacity status covering Combined, Generation, and Demand. Sub-types include Grid Power Substations (400/132kV), Bulk Power Substations (132/33kV), Primary Power Substations (33/11kV), and Secondary Substations (under 11kV).

Source: Electricity North West, Northern Powergrid, SP Energy Networks, UK Power Networks, SSE, Western Power Distribution (now part of National Grid)

Updated: Daily