APPENDIX 6

HOUSING PROVISION IN NORTH HAMPSHIRE

Overall house building target set by SEERA for this sub-area, 1,300 new homes per annum (2006-2026.). On the basis of this new housebuilding and the predicted fall in the average size of households, it is forecast that the population of North Hampshire will increase by around 7%.

Consultation Options

The following three options were set out in the consultation documents:

Stakeholders' Preferences

Option 3 is the most popular option amongst parish and town councils, and amongst development interests. Option 2 is the most popular amongst environmental, amenity and social groups. Detailed figures are at the end of this appendix.

Residents' Preferences

North Hampshire residents clearly favour Option 3, although residents across Hampshire as a whole have no strong preference between the three options. Detailed figures are at the end of this appendix.

Borough/District Council Preferences

Two Councils prefer the lowest of the range of figures for their areas; the other supports the highest in their range, as follows:

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council seeks 710

Hart District Council seeks 160

Rushmoor Borough Council seeks 305

Key Agencies' Preferences

The Highways Agency believes that growth at Basingstoke could impact on trunk roads in the area and states that demand management measures will be needed together with some major improvements to the capacity of the road network. Thames Water's preference is for option 3 because it would minimise development at Basingstoke. English Nature prefers option 2 because it means least development in localities close to the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. The health bodies make general comments but do not express any preferences between the three consultation options. No response to the consultation has been received from the Environment Agency.

Main Findings of the Sustainability Appraisal

The three consultation options perform relatively similarly in respect of the appraisal criteria although Option 3 performs slightly less well than Options 1 and 2. This is principally because intensification of development in urban areas, on more numerous smaller sites, gives rise to less opportunities to incorporate sustainable forms of development with associated infrastructure and risks employment land being lost to residential use.

Recommended New Hybrid Option

The following is suggested as a possible, hybrid option:

Basingstoke and Deane (part) 795

Hart (part) 195

Rushmoor 310

This combination is close to consultation Option 3, but allocates slightly more housebuilding to Basingstoke (and slightly less in Hart) in recognition that Basingstoke is a regional transport hub (the South East Plan sees such hubs as appropriate locations for major development). It would be consistent with the overall strategy for the Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley Sub-region (of which North Hampshire is part) and would acknowledge that the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area constrains the opportunities for housing development in Hart and Rushmoor Boroughs beyond those in adopted Local Plans. Substantial greenfield allocations would be necessary in Basingstoke and Deane Borough. (See table at the end of this appendix.)

This hybrid represents a compromise between the preferences of the three Borough/District Councils, recognising that the sum of their preferences falls short of the overall house building target for North Hampshire. A joint meeting of Executive Members of the County and three Borough/District Councils on 7 November 2005 acknowledged the preferences expressed by the three Borough/District Councils but also recognised that the County Council needed to submit, a set of figures for North Hampshire which summed to SEERA's overall total for the area. The emerging proposed hybrid option was explained to the authorities at this meeting.

In relation to the Sustainability Appraisal, this preferred hybrid option performs better than Option 3 because there will be more opportunities for new housing areas in Basingstoke, taking the appraisal outcome closer to Option 1. The reduction in the need for urban intensification in Hart included in Option 3 also enables the hybrid option to perform better. Moreover, the performance of the hybrid option will be further improved if local planning authorities, through their Local Development Frameworks, select development sites which perform well in sustainability terms and ensure that their detailed design and layout produce schemes which similarly score well.

310 per annum for Rushmoor Borough would be in line with the Borough Council's wishes and is the figure for the Borough most favoured by North Hampshire residents, Parish and Town Councils, and development interests. It would allow the realisation of the Aldershot Urban Extension (a development predominantly of housing on brownfield land to be released from military use) but not would require any other significant new allocations of land for housing development in the Borough.

195 per annum for Hart District would represent a compromise between the 160 sought by the District Council and the 280 which was the most popular figure with North Hampshire Parish/Town Councils, development interests and North Hampshire residents. It would mean a halving of the recent rate of house building and would require no new land to be allocated for housing beyond that in the existing Local Plan.

795 per year in Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council would be closer to Option 3 than Options 1 and 2; Option 3 being that favoured by the Borough Council, residents, Parish/Town Councils and development interests. It would require the allocation of a substantial amount of greenfield land for house building in Basingstoke and Deane Borough. A single major development area on the edge of Basingstoke would be the most sustainable form of development and would maximise funding from Government and developers towards transport and other infrastructure, including affordable housing.

Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area

The Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area (SPA) comprises a suite of sites in Hart and Rushmoor Districts designated under the European Habitats Directive as internationally important for several species of ground-nesting birds. The amount of new housing which could be allowed without adversely affecting the SPA will not be known until 2006, so it is proposed to that the housebuilding for Hart and Rushmoor Districts should be submitted to SEERA subject to resolution of the SPA issue.

North Hampshire: Public Consultation Results

Stakeholders' Preferences

Residents' Preferences

Land supply to meet the preferred option

(Totals for 20 years 2006-2026)

NB: All figures have been rounded to the nearest 100