South Hampshire
The South East Plan proposes that 4,000 new homes per year will be built in South Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton, which would mean building 80,000 new homes over the 20 years of the plan.
Development will be focused on the regeneration of Portsmouth, Southampton and older urban areas. Priority will be given to sites already earmarked for house building, urban regeneration and development of previously used land. However, greenfield development will be needed to meet the overall housing targets and will be concentrated in strategic development areas (SDAs). The rate of greenfield land release will be managed so that previously used land is built on first.
House building within urban areas
Current estimates are that around 56 per cent of the overall house building target for the sub-region could be on previously used land. This is slightly below the Government’s target of 60 per cent, because a higher rate of house building is proposed than in the past, which in turn means more development on greenfield land.
Strategic development areas
The intention is to concentrate the greenfield development into SDAs. Each SDA would include a variety of types and sizes of new homes, as well as jobs, shops, schools, health and community facilities and recreational space. This form of development is the most sustainable and has the greatest opportunity to attract investment in new infrastructure. Two SDAs are proposed – one related to Portsmouth and one related to Southampton.
One is proposed within Fareham Borough, to the north of the M27 motorway. A gap of undeveloped land would be retained between the SDA and Wickham. The SDA would be developed as an extension to the town and comprise up to 10,000 new homes.
The other SDA is proposed to the north and north east of Hedge End. It would be a distinct new community comprising up to 6,000 new homes.
Urban extensions
The planning of the strategic development areas will take time and it is unlikely that they will provide any new homes before 2016. To provide for housing needs before then, around 12,500 new homes are proposed to be built in urban extensions. There is scope for these in five of the districts: