The Economy

140. A healthy economy is fundamental to maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in Hampshire. On it depends not only the provision of jobs, but also the ability to tackle existing environmental and social problems and achieve high standards in new development.

141. A strong local economy can only be achieved if local firms are competitive. Planning policies do not, however, create jobs or make business prosperous. They provide a framework to stimulate and encourage economic growth. In that respect it is not only specific economic policies that are important, but the message conveyed by the whole range of policies in the Review.

142. A successful economy in the twenty-first century will need to give greater emphasis to social and environmental factors. Economic, social, and environmental objectives should be seen as reinforcing each other, rather than in conflict. The balance must take account of returns over the long term as well as the short term.

143. The Plan aims to provide opportunities for a range of locations, types and sizes of development to:

· facilitate the growth and development of existing businesses;

· encourage appropriate new investment to provide employment opportunities to meet Hampshire's needs;

· focus on the regeneration of Portsmouth and Southampton;

· facilitate development and redevelopment in other urban areas;

· support small-scale businesses in rural areas; and

· encourage tourism.

EC1 Planning permission will normally be granted for the development of land for industrial, commercial or business uses where such land:

(i) is allocated for such a purpose in a currently adopted local plan;

(ii) is already in lawful use for industrial, commercial or business purposes; or

(iii) is within a built-up area as defined in a local plan, particularly where its development would assist urban regeneration, and is appropriate for such a use having regard to surrounding land uses and the policies and proposals of the Development Plan, as well as amenity and highway considerations;

except that permission may be refused if the local planning authority is satisfied that a proposal on its own or cumulatively with others would cause significant harm to:

(a) the local economy through the overheating of the local labour market; or

(b) the implementation of the Development Plan by requiring the provision of undesirable additional housing; or

(c) the highway network through added congestion in conflict with the highway policies in this Plan: or

(d) other interests of acknowledged importance.

144. This policy establishes the strategic criteria to be applied in considering planning applications for industrial and commercial purposes. Permission will normally be granted for development, or redevelopment, of land allocated for such purposes in local plans; of land in existing industrial use; or of sites within a built-up area (subject to satisfaction of normal environmental criteria), except where a proposal can be shown to give rise to significant harm.

145. The policy provides the flexibility, particularly in the urban areas, to permit development or redevelopment for industrial, commercial or business uses, providing they are compatible with surrounding land uses and the environmental policies of the local plan.

146. Where proposals, including those for the use or re-use of redundant sites which were previously in employment use, envisage a significant increase in floorspace, the scheme will be tested against the criteria. Particular attention will be paid to assessing applications which involve a significant intensification in the type or nature of use, for example, where older industrial sites are to be redeveloped for commercial offices. The local planning authorities will wish to be satisfied that proposals are consistent with the Plan's overall transport strategy for movement into and out of urban areas and with the provision for housing in and adjacent to the urban area.

147. The assessment will consider both the short and the long term. Whilst it is important that all the criteria are evaluated it might, on occasions, be appropriate to attach more weight to one criterion at the expense of others. In providing a framework for assessing the merits of a particular development or allocation, the policy will ensure that all the criteria are taken into consideration and that any weighting of criteria is made transparent.

148. In view of the extensive restructuring taking place within the economy of Hampshire, particularly rationalisation in defence-related industrial sectors, local planning authorities will seek to maintain the stock of existing and allocated land for manufacturing and high-technology industries. Making the best use of existing and allocated industrial sites to support the manufacturing economy will ensure that full use is made of existing road infrastructure designed for industrial traffic, and that new jobs are located close to centres of population.

EC2 In allocating land for industrial and business purposes in local plans local planning authorities should make provision for:

(i) a reasonable range of types and sizes of sites in a variety of locations, suitable for uses which might reasonably be expected to locate within their areas;

(ii) sites to permit the known and reasonable requirements of existing businesses within their areas to be accommodated;

(iii) sites required to take advantage of particular business, industrial or locational opportunities within their area, or to improve such opportunities;

(iv) sites required to provide job opportunities for the workforce in the area,

having regard to the factors in policy EC1 (a) - (d) and the results of monitoring the supply and take-up of industrial, commercial and business floorspace, labour market trends and the needs of particular sectors of the economy.

149. Given the uncertainty surrounding the nature and pace of economic change, particularly the changing balances between manufacturing and service industries, high technology and lower-skilled jobs, and men and women in the workforce, it would be inappropriate to propose a single set of guideline figures for industrial and office floorspace in individual districts.

150. In place of guideline figures, Policy EC2 establishes the elements of industrial and business demand that local plans will be expected to provide for and the strategic criteria against which the scale and location of industrial and business provision will be tested. Local plans should provide for the reasonable needs of existing businesses and the type of inward investment likely to be attracted to the area; they should take advantage of particular opportunities such as the release of a redundant MoD site, for example, or the potential to foster the development of an existing or emerging business cluster; and they should provide the types of sites likely to generate job opportunities appropriate for the local workforce. In determining the scale and location of their industrial and business provision, local plans should also have regard to the capacity of the local labour and housing markets, the local transport infrastructure, and other criteria, such as environmental interests, all within the context of the Development Plan aims and objectives.

151. The effective operation of the criteria-based policies requires an equally effective system of monitoring. The County Council will support the operation of the criteria by regular monitoring of key indicators and the regular production of long-term economic forecasts. Both the demand side and the supply side of the local economy will be kept under review including: changes in output, structural changes in employment and occupation of business space; as well as availability of land and premises, the skills of the workforce, unemployment and housing land availability. Information will be collected for Hampshire as a whole, its economic sub-regions, districts and smaller areas as appropriate. Local economic surveys will be undertaken as necessary. In addition, the local planning authorities will be expected to maintain close contact with their local labour market, commercial property market and business trends.

152. As well as the regular dissemination of monitoring information, the County Council will prepare a Strategic Brief, in consultation with the local planning authority, at the commencement of a local plan. This brief will include an analysis of the economic conditions prevailing in the local plan area at the time and economic forecasts based on the latest and most up-to-date information available. The local economic analysis will be set in the context of national and regional trends and of Hampshire area and sub-area comparisons. The preparation of the Strategic Brief will be a co-operative process; the exact specification of each brief will vary as far as possible to meet the precise requirements of the local planning authority concerned.

EC3 In addition to the provisions of Policy EC1, the following types of development will normally be permitted having regard to the countryside policies of the Plan:

(a) within and adjoining rural settlements:

(i) use by businesses of existing buildings;

(ii) workshops, industries and businesses appropriate in scale and location to the settlement or site;

(b) outside rural settlements:

(i) use by businesses of existing buildings provided that the buildings have not become so derelict that they could be brought back into use only by complete or substantial reconstruction;

(ii) buildings associated with agriculture, horticulture or forestry.

153. This policy provides guidelines for judging proposals for industrial, commercial, farming and forestry development on land outside existing or proposed built-up areas as defined in local plans. It provides for development in the countryside and development within or adjacent to rural settlements intended to encourage appropriate rural enterprise, providing it is consistent with the Plan's countryside and other policies and is appropriate to its surroundings. Enterprise related to the development of tourist, recreational and sporting facilities is covered by Policy R3.

154. A healthy rural economy is essential to maintain the independence and self-sufficiency of rural communities and an attractive, well-managed countryside. The aim of the policy is to support development which is essential to meet the needs of the rural economy. Farm diversification is a crucial element in helping to support agriculture, horticulture and woodland management. It enables alternative sources of income to sustain the core business of farming and helps provide employment opportunities to meet local needs. The continuing viability of farming may depend on a diversification of activities in order to support the existing agricultural uses. In such cases the conversion and re-use of existing buildings, adapted for a new enterprise, may be appropriate, providing that their rural character is retained and the historic or architectural importance of the buildings is not damaged.

155. In the countryside, new non-food crops and changing methods of processing and marketing may require agri-industrial developments. These may include the storage and processing of agricultural and woodland products or the production of renewable energy from the processing of biomass, requiring the construction of large buildings and electricity transmission lines in rural locations convenient to the source of the crop or coppiced material.

156. Where diversification proposals or other proposals for economic development in the countryside are essential to meet the needs of the rural economy, or where renewable energy production broadens national energy supplies, specific proposals must respect the character and capacity of the landscape to absorb the development. The impact of the proposals on the character of the landscape should be minimised by careful attention to design, scale, form, location and orientation. Similarly, the adverse effects of noise and disturbance on the character of the rural landscape will be important considerations. Policy E5 provides criteria for assessing such proposals.

157. Development proposals can usefully be promoted through a whole farm plan to ensure integrated management of the unit as a whole. This should also secure an overall enhancement of the landscape including management of existing landscape features and, where appropriate, improved public access. Large-scale developments will require comprehensive landscape proposals to enhance the setting of the scheme.

158. Local plans should provide the detailed criteria against which to judge proposals for development. Useful background information for the development and interpretation of Policy EC3 is contained in the Hampshire Farming Study.

159. Industrial, commercial and business development in the countryside may give rise to increased traffic movements and large vehicles using minor and unclassified roads. In considering such proposals, planning authorities will need to assess carefully both the immediate and possible longer-term issues of highway safety and environmental impact arising from additional traffic generation.

160. The reference to `business' reflects a general definition of business activities and is not a reference to Class B1 uses in the 1987 Use Classes Order.

EC4 Industrial, commercial or business development will not normally be permitted on land falling outside the provisions of Policies EC1 and EC3, unless, exceptionally, the need for the development or the benefits that would flow from it are sufficient to outweigh Development Plan or other objections.

161. The flexibility provided by the package of employment policies precludes the need to propose `safeguarded sites' in local plans. Although a strict restraint on development outside the employment land areas identified under Policy EC1 will normally be applied, in exceptional circumstances a departure from the countryside policies may be justified. Such an exception might be justified, for example, where a specific planned investment project was in the national interest and no other available employment land could meet the specific project needs.

162. Where applications for a departure from an adopted local plan are made, applicants will need to justify the exceptional reasons for overriding planning policy or other objections. Any justification will have to address the issue of whether the proposal might be accommodated on available employment development land elsewhere in Hampshire.