Open letter to Michael Gove on housing in East Hampshire

East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) has written an open letter to the new Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, to address local housing needs.

The government expects East Hampshire to build 600 homes a year despite 57% of the district being inside the South Downs National Park.

Part of the letter reads: ‘It is extremely important that the flaws associated with the standard method for calculating local housing needs are remedied now.

‘As it stands, areas like East Hampshire cannot easily plan for its future development needs due to the unrealistic numbers associated with the presence of the National Park.

‘Further guidance is needed on how such strategic policy-making authorities can determine their housing needs.

‘I urge you to address this as a matter of urgency to stop the unwarranted development of large swathes of greenfield land in rural districts such as East Hampshire.’

EHDC continues to gather evidence to assess potential development sites set out in a document called the Spatial Strategy.

By the Spring of 2022, the council is expected to produce a list of sites that will be included in the Local Plan.

Cllr Richard Millard, EHDC Leader, said: ‘We recognise the fundamental importance of evidence when allocating sites for housing.

‘We are part of the way through that process and there is still a lot of work to do. Each site will be reviewed objectively using the data we will gather.

‘We can’t make promises about which sites will be included in the Local Plan, but we can involve people through consultation and provide the evidence that will help people understand the decisions we take.

‘If the evidence doesn’t support it, it won’t get in the plan.’

The Local Plan helps the council to protect valuable landscapes, communities and combat climate change while setting out what infrastructure is needed to support new homes.

Without a Local Plan, the district would receive speculative applications from developers which could be less sustainable, more damaging to communities and provide little or no infrastructure.

Cllr Angela Glass, EHDC’s Portfolio Holder for Planning, said: “We don’t want to fall victim to speculative applications for developments that don’t have the supporting infrastructure.

‘Developers will come forward if we don’t have a Local Plan in place.

‘Our Spatial Strategy is not about finalising the Local Plan. More work is needed on the policies, sites and evidence to underpin the plan’s content, but it is a way of being open and showing the public reasonable alternatives at this moment in time.

‘There has already been extensive consultation but now the Spatial Strategy has been approved we can move forward with community engagement and give residents more say on the proposals put forward by developers.’