Question 3
Where could new development in the Borough go?
To ensure infrastructure and utilities can be planned comprehensively alongside growth in housing and employment areas, the Local Plan needs to guide where development is likely to happen over the next 20 or so years.
This ‘plan-led’ approach also helps to avoid piecemeal development, and plan new communities in a more joined-up way. In looking for locations for development, the Council has reviewed all the main constraints on development in the Borough including flood risk, internationally important habitat and wildlife areas, visual gaps between individual settlements, and so on.
Planning for new communities also needs to respond to where the house-building industry believe there is a market for new homes, and where the current land use and infrastructure provision does not overly constrain construction or make it unviable.
The Local Plan needs to demonstrate that enough development land is available to meet needs for housing, employment and other uses, since 2011, and up until 2036 (the ‘plan period’). A large proportion of the sites required to deliver new homes in the borough during this period have already have planning permission. These sites are mostly within, or close to, existing built-up areas such as Eastleigh.
To plan for meeting the remaining number of new homes (likely to be around 6000 by 2036), The Council has recently consulted upon eight different potential locations for development on undeveloped or ‘greenfield’ land. We sought views from the community, housebuilding industry and key consultees and interested bodies, on the merits and disadvantages of the options identified.