East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) is calling on the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) to take its fair share of homes after plans revealed it could build fewer than 60 homes per year in East Hampshire. 

The new Government has proposed that East Hampshire’s housing figures be ramped up by 86 per cent, from 575 homes a year to 1,074. Now the SDNPA’s plans suggest it will build only around 60 of these in East Hampshire’s part of the national park.

The Authority is putting together a Local Plan, allocating sites for development across the entire national park. However, the draft plan indicates it will only deliver around 500 extra homes by 2042 in East Hampshire. 

It means some areas would see relatively little development, while others outside the park’s boundary will take the lion’s share.

Cllr Richard Millard, EHDC Leader, said: “To say we are disappointed with these figures is an understatement.  The South Downs National Park will leave us high and dry by only taking a tiny fraction of houses. 

“If they continue down this road it will be a body blow to people from Four Marks, Alton, Whitehill & Bordon and the southern parishes who say they have seen more than their fair share of development already.”

Cllr Andy Tree for Whitehill & Bordon commented: “People in Whitehill & Bordon want to see the level of development in the town managed carefully and without saturation.

“If these enormous housing targets are to be met then it is areas outside the national park that will bear the brunt of this development, which is also unfair on the Alton area, and other parts of East Hampshire too, including the south.”

The SDNPA’s planning committee will discuss the proposals at a meeting scheduled for November 14. A public consultation will be held in the New Year.