What has changed since the last exhibition and why?

At the end of 2020 we consulted on our proposed Publication Local Plan that:

• Planned to meet the Government's proposed reduced target for new homes
• Protected green spaces
• Retained the character of our communities

Since then the Government has rowed back on the way we have to calculate the number of homes required in the Borough.  This means that housing demand has risen from 403 homes a year to 541.

In addition, to meet newly identified need, further employment sites have also been added.

Why has the housing requirement changed again?

The Government has changed the housing demand placed on Fareham a number of times since 2017:

• In 2018, a few months after the Council's draft Local Plan consultation was complete, the Government announced significant changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, meaning the Draft Local Plan had to be re-written
• In 2019, the Government introduced a new way to calculate housing need in order to achieve their target of 300,000 homes nationally per year.
• In 2020 the Government consulted on further changes including using data from 2018 rather than data from 2014 to identify housing need.
• This would have reduced the number of homes required for Fareham from 520 to 403 a year – a drop of almost 23%.
• However, the Government reverted to using the older 2014 data, meaning our housing requirement has once again increased.
• The difference between wages and house prices has also risen, further increasing our housing requirement.
• The Council now has to allocate land for the construction of 541 new houses each year.
• The proposed new housing sites will be outlined later in the exhibition.

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