New Forest District Council

Local Plan

New Forest District Local Plan was adopted in November 1999 - end date 2001.

Alterations are being progressed, covering the period to 2011. Programme:

¬ First Stage Deposit 2001

¬ Revised Deposit likely to be Feb/Mar 2003

¬ Public Inquiry late 2003

¬ Adopt by end 2004

Housing Land Supply

We have a projected surplus of 385 dwellings in relation to the Structure Plan baseline requirement of 5,480 dwellings 1996-2011. This is without any further green-field allocations. The emerging Local Plan Alterations propose the transfer of one green-field site from an allocation to a reserve site.

The emerging Local Plan Alterations identify new reserve sites for 145 dwellings. Given the surplus over the baseline requirement, this is sufficient to provide for the 500 dwellings reserve requirement.

Urban Capacity Study

This was published July 2001 - to be reviewed next year (2003).

The findings of the UCS support the Council's estimated windfall contributions over the plan period, as used in calculating the land supply for the District (180 extra dwellings a year on average on small/windfall sites in the identified built-up areas). We did not find extra capacity beyond that already forecast.

Although the District's UCS generally accords with national and strategic guidance, refinements to the methodology could be justified in the light of more recent best practice examples and monitoring information (e.g. review potential for dwellings over shops in light of annual retail survey, introduce phasing and assess available capacity over different time scales, review density methodology).

Post 1996 housebuilding rate

From April 1996 to March 2002 a total of 2,841 dwellings have been built. This gives an average completion rate of 474 dwellings per annum - substantially higher than the average Structure Plan requirement (365 per annum).

Scale and type (brownfield / greenfield) of allocations in draft local plan

The Local Plan Alterations (including the reserve sites) provide from April 2002 for 921 dwellings on greenfield sites and an estimated 2,325 dwellings on brownfield sites - 72% of the total is estimated to be on brownfield sites. We have no MDAs.

Other significant topics/local plan proposals/local issues:

Dibden Bay Port proposals (Public Inquiry is nearing end);

New Forest National Park (Public Inquiry has just started);

Other main Local Plan issues: employment land and local economy; affordable housing; care homes for elderly; improving town centres; protecting New Forest, other countryside and coast while providing for local needs; various transport issues.

GrahamA\JAPnote/24.10.02