The Winchester District Local Plan 2018-2038

The Winchester District Local Plan is the blueprint for growth and development in the district from 2018 to 2038. The Local Plan process takes several years, and the Council hopes to adopt the final Plan in 2023.

On 15 February, Winchester City Council published its first consultation on the new Local Plan. The consultation document, entitled Strategic Issues and Priorities, covers nine topics, including climate neutrality, biodiversity and the natural environment and employment and transport, but of most interest to us is the topic on housing, entitled ‘Homes for All’. The consultation ran until 12 April.

On housing, the Council asked Winchester residents to comment on four options for accommodating the numbers of new homes the Government requires them to build between 2018 and 2038. This number is just under 700 dwellings per year, or 14,000 over the twenty year plan period. There are already 11,300 new homes in the pipeline, so the Council needs to decide where the remaining 2,700 will be built.

Of major concern to us is Option 3, which proposes that the remaining homes are delivered via a large new settlement. While we understand that the Council is required by the government to assess in their Local Plan all viable options for accommodating the required housing numbers, this option opens the door to the proposal for Micheldever new town put forward by the landowner the Magnier family and their developer O’Flynn Group.

The Dever Society supports the Local Plan process and agrees with the need for new homes. Whichever option the Council eventually takes forward, the 14,000 new homes will be built. What is important is that they are built in the most sustainable location for Winchester. We strongly believe that brownfield and previously built on land should be developed before any greenfield sites are considered. Building a large new settlement and destroying swathes of pristine habitat forever would be an environmental travesty.

It is crucial that the Council gets the clear message that large new towns in the countryside are the wrong option for delivering Winchester’s housing target.

After 12 April, the Council will review the responses it has received and develop a more detailed Local Plan draft, including where the required housing numbers will be built. We hope that they will decide at this point to reject large new towns in the countryside.

For more information on the Local Plan process, click here for the Council’s dedicated Local Plan website.