The Government’s agenda is to build more houses. Basingstoke is one of 4 'growth hubs' in the region and growth should be "housing led".  In short, this means that we become an even-bigger dormitory town.  And as Government policy is to find in favour of 'sustainable' development, this approach has been approved by the Government Inspector, regardless of how dubious the label of 'sustainable' may be in practice.

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Perhaps the strongest piece of good news is the requirement placed on developers to prove that the additional sewage from their development will not impact the water quality in the Loddon, where all of the processed outfall for Basingstoke is discharged.  This is actually quite a significant constraint.  We, and other groups across the town, have been concerned that the impact of 15,000+ new dwellings in the next 13 years will have a serious detrimental effect on all aspects of the local environment.  In forcing this constraint, the Inspector has insisted that there is at least one very real test of sustainability that must be applied to any new development before it is allowed to go ahead.  

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If you'd like to see the arguments we put forward on these issues, click here.

If you'd like to see the Local Plan, click here 

 

LATEST NEWS - LOCAL PLAN UPDATE 2020 - 21

Basingstoke Council will start reviewing the Local Plan in early 2020.  The first critical date will be December 2019 when the Council publishes a new SHELAA showing all the sites that have been put forward for development by landowners.  Click here to see the latest Council Newsletter on the Local Plan Review.

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