Increased housing numbers for Winchester
The Government has today announced increases in the required housing numbers for Winchester district, as part of its South East Plan Review.
Winchester is now required to provide12,740 homes over the next 20 years, an increase of 500 from the Panel Report figure, and an increase of 2,301 from the original 2006 Draft Plan.
Cllr George Beckett, Leader of Winchester City Council said, “The Government’s decision to increase housing numbers for the Winchester District has made our job more difficult and amounts to an instruction from Westminster to build on greenfield land ‘to the north of Winchester’. Unless other options emerge, that may compel development at Barton Farm.
“Since the draft South East Plan in 2006 Winchester District has seen an increase of 22% in its required housing numbers, the largest increase in Hampshire.
“We are committed to providing a sound framework for local planning (the Local Development Framework) but these increases will make it harder to do so without greenfield development”.
The proposed changes to the South East Plan were published today by GOSE and show the proposed changes to housing numbers for the whole of the South East region. The full report can be seen at the following link http://www.gose.gov.uk/gose/planning/regionalPlanning/?a=42496