Protect Hampshire's villages and countryside from unplanned development
Labour's Housing Secretary calls councils who refuse speculative applications "blockers." He's raised housing targets and stripped powers from local councillors — fuelling a wave of speculative development forced through without the roads, schools and GP surgeries to cope.
Sign the petition. We'll deliver it to Steve Reed — the more Hampshire voices, the harder we are to ignore.
Protect Hampshire from Speculative Development
From the chalk streams of the Test and Itchen to the South Downs, the New Forest fringes and the market towns that give Hampshire its character, our county is one of the most distinctive in England. Our villages, our countryside, our heritage. They are not a blank canvas for development by appeal.
The scale of what is planned for Hampshire
Over the next 15 years
65,000+
new homes
Over the next 20 years
87,000+
new homes
Without a plan-led approach, thousands of these homes could be pushed through on sites never assessed for infrastructure, flooding, or environmental impact.
But that is what Hampshire is becoming.
Across the county, development is coming forward in a piecemeal, uncoordinated way. It is placing real pressure on:
Local roads
Forced to carry traffic from homes approved without proper highway assessment.
School places
New homes forced through with no requirement for matching school or GP capacity.
Drainage and flooding
Sites waved through without proper flood-risk assessment, putting homes downstream at risk.
Village character
Whitehall targets overriding local plans and the distinct feel of our villages and countryside.
When developments come forward outside the Local Plan, councils have very limited ability to secure the infrastructure contributions our communities rightly expect. That means growth without the investment to support it, and residents are right to be frustrated.
So why is this happening?
We are seeing a growing number of speculative planning applications. These are developments that are not part of an agreed Local Plan, but are being pushed forward because national planning rules increasingly favour approval where councils cannot demonstrate a full five-year housing land supply.
That is the root of the problem.
The Housing Secretary, Steve Reed, has raised housing targets significantly without transitional arrangements, labelled councils who push back as "blockers," and is moving planning decisions away from elected councillors. The consequence is predictable. Developers are bypassing the plan-led system and submitting applications on sites that have not been properly assessed for infrastructure, flooding, or environmental impact.
This is not about opposing new homes. Hampshire needs them. But they must be the right homes, in the right places, with the right infrastructure, and that only comes through a plan-led approach that respects local communities.
What we are calling for
A genuinely plan-led system
Where Local Plans, not speculative applications, determine where development goes.
Infrastructure delivered alongside
New roads, schools and GP surgeries built with the homes, not years afterwards.
Proper weight for flooding and environment
Real weight given to flooding, environmental constraints, and local capacity.
Protection for Hampshire's character
Safeguarding our countryside, chalk streams, villages and market towns.
Why your signature matters
This petition will be delivered to the Secretary of State for Housing with every Hampshire signature behind it. The more residents who sign, the harder it becomes for Westminster to dismiss our county's concerns.
Hampshire deserves coordinated, sustainable growth, not development by appeal and speculation. Please add your name and help us call for a fairer planning system for our county.
Add your name today
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