East Hampshire is a beautiful place to live and work in. The combination of stunning countryside, vibrant towns, beautiful villages and easy access to London and the south coast is a real draw for those of us lucky enough to live here.
Housing in East Hampshire
East Hampshire, like the rest of the country, needs to build more homes. It is a particularly acute issue in our area, as is the case in most of the South East, because of the high house-price-to-income ratios. Whilst we do need to build more, we also need to protect our green spaces and ensure the correct infrastructure is in place to support new settlements. I firmly support the ‘brownfield first’ principle, but a constraining factor in East Hampshire is that we have relatively little brownfield space for development.
East Hampshire Local Plan
East Hampshire District Council has a 'local plan', covering the period 2012-2040. In late 2023, the council consulted on a draft of this local plan, which set out indicative sites for new homes. Many local residents responded to this consultation and also got in touch with me to raise concerns about the sites being proposed, including areas near to Alton. Proposed house building, in or near to an established community, is always going to be controversial and I do completely understand the strength of feeling about some of the sites that were put forward. The responses to the consultation can be viewed here.
National Planning Policy is set by central government, which produces guidance for local planning authorities such as East Hampshire District Council. This includes the 'standard method' which calculates how much housing each planning authority needs to build each year. The government has consulted twice on revising the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) - my response to the latest consultation can be found below (10 March 2026). This follows the previous government's revisions to the framework in 2022 (which East Hampshire District Council's draft local plan was based on),
In simple terms, the government's new 'standard method' has led to an effective doubling of the previous housing target for East Hampshire. I believe such a sizable uplift cannot be accommodated by our existing infrastructure, and nor do we have the land supply, and so schools, GP surgeries and other local infrastructure would struggle to cope.
I have raised my concerns about this target repeatedly to the Ministers at the relevant government department and in debates in Parliament. This is how the Independent reported my Westminster Hall debate on rural housing targets: Government accused of having ‘rogue algorithm’ for deciding housing targets | The Independent
I have also written to the government (jointly with Greg Stafford MP (Farnham and Bordon) and Cllr Richard Millard, EHDC) to again urge a rethink of housing targets for East Hampshire (a copy of this letter from 18 September 2025 is below).
EHDC has recently announced that it will no longer be submitting a local plan by the end of December 2026. You can read their latest press release here: https://www.easthants.gov.uk/news/2026/ehdc-shifts-local-plan-strategy-amid-sweeping-changes-national-planning
Planning and the South Downs National Park
A unique complicating factor for our area, and one I have spoken at length about, is the existence of the South Downs National Park, which has a boundary that runs through the middle of East Hampshire's planning area. As a result, East Hampshire is partly in the national park and partly outside it. The critical point is that different planning rules apply to national parks.
Because of the protections in place for the park, the uplift to East Hampshire's housing target places further pressure on areas outside the national park - Alton, Four Marks, Medstead - which have already seen significant development in recent years.
Furthermore, decisions about housing developments within the national park rest with the South Downs National Park Authority and not with East Hampshire District Council, which is another complicating factor.
My view is that there should be different targets for developments inside and outside national parks. I will keep pushing the government on this point.
The BBC ran this story which shows some of the issues involved with the government’s new housing targets, and illustrates (see the map) some of the anomalies created, including that targets in London are actually going down https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk4y05vp61o
Statutory consultees
When I meet constituents concerned about the impact of house building on their community I always stress that any proposals will have to take into account the future infrastructure requirements of additional households, including the impact on local roads and public transport, as well as energy services. Providers of these services are known as 'statutory consultees' and play a key role in any decisions about housing in an area. Other essential services, such as GP surgeries, dentists, school places and water (fresh and sewage) also need to be taken into account when housing developments are being considered. I am in regular touch with the Integrated Care Board for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (which oversees NHS services in Hampshire), as well as the education team within Hampshire County Council, to understand how they are planning for any future housing developments.
Unauthorised development
Unfortunately, we have seen multiple instances of unauthorised development in East Hampshire – buildings, structures and facilities being erected without the necessary planning permission from the local authority. This is not a problem unique to our area; it has happened in communities across the country.
I believe the law must be strengthened to make clear that substantial development undertaken deliberately and knowingly without planning permission is unacceptable. The planning system must apply fairly and consistently to everyone.
I have urged the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to make it explicit that retrospective planning permission should not be granted where planning requirements have been wilfully disregarded. I also support measures to prevent the delivery of construction materials and mobile housing units to unlawful sites, as well as reforms to enable councils to obtain and enforce injunctions more quickly through the courts.
I reiterated these points in my submission to the Government's recent consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework – see below.
Any issues of unauthorised development should, in the first instance, be reported to East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) or Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC).