Hampshire council area

Selling Land in Basingstoke and Deane

Basingstoke and Deane scored 94% in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, clear of the lines that add a buffer or trigger the unmet need test. Yet by its own reckoning it holds little more than three years of housing land, and its new plan has stalled over water supply. For land around Basingstoke, Tadley, Overton and Whitchurch, that gap is what counts.

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The Borough in Brief

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council covers Basingstoke, which has no parish council and is run directly by the borough, the smaller towns of Tadley and Whitchurch, and a wide rural area of chalk downland and villages such as Overton, Kingsclere, Oakley and Bramley. The council's draft plan names Basingstoke its principal service centre.

A delivery score of 94%. That clears the 75% and 85% thresholds but falls short of 95%, which obliges the council to produce an action plan on speeding up building.
A plan dating from May 2016. The adopted Local Plan is now 10 years old, so its housing figure has been overtaken by the government's standard method.
A shortfall in supply. Its 2024/25 monitoring report, issued in December 2025, puts its housing land supply at 3.2 years from 1 April 2025.
A draft plan for over 20,000 homes. The latest draft, consulted on between November 2025 and January 2026, plans for at least 20,402 homes from 2024 to 2042.
A plan held up by water. In September 2026 the council said water supply capacity and other strategic infrastructure had become significant issues for the plan.

The combination is unusual: a borough that clears the delivery test well enough to avoid a buffer, yet is well short on supply. Here it is the supply position, not the headline score, that decides how an application on unallocated land is weighed.

Basingstoke and Deane in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
94%
Below 95%: the council must publish an action plan to improve delivery.
Homes built against homes needed
2,415
of 2,558 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
May 2016
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Draft Local Plan consulted on November 2025 to January 2026; timetable being revised because of water supply
Checked source

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

Why Supply, Not the Delivery Score, Drives Decisions Here

Policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework opens a route for homes beyond a settlement boundary when three things line up: need for housing shown by evidence, a site that genuinely belongs with the town or village next to it, and roads, schools and drainage able to absorb the extra homes. A council scoring below 75% is automatically treated as having that need. At 94%, Basingstoke and Deane is not, but national policy also lets a missing five-year supply stand as evidence of need, and the council's own figures show one.

Two Supply Figures, One Conclusion

The monitoring report gives 3.2 years: 3,814 deliverable homes against a five-year requirement of 5,996, built from 1,142 homes a year plus a 5% buffer. At the Whitchurch appeal inquiry in August 2026 the council put 3.1 years, against a requirement of 5,830, and the appellant argued for 2.2. The supply total is the same in both council figures, so the gap lies in how the requirement was worked out for the inquiry. It makes no practical difference: every figure is well below five years, and the Overton inspector called the shortfall persistent and unlikely to be resolved before a new plan is adopted.

What Two Recent Appeals Show

Overton, allowed in April 2026. An inspector granted up to 130 homes, with 40% affordable housing, on land south west of Sapley Lane that sits just outside Overton's settlement boundary. The shortfall was given significant weight, and the landscape evidence found a negligible effect on the North Wessex Downs, about 1.7km away. The decision predates the new Framework, but its reasoning on supply still applies.
Whitchurch, dismissed in September 2026. A scheme for 115 homes east of Bere Hill was decided after the new Framework came into force, and the inspector applied policy S5. Despite the shortfall, the harm from a layout described as hard, heavy and repetitive, and the effect on the setting of the North Wessex Downs, were found to substantially outweigh the benefits.

Together they show that the shortfall gets a well placed site through the door, but design, landscape and the way the homes meet the existing edge decide the outcome. That is where we spend on the planning case.

The Draft Local Plan to 2042

The council consulted on a full draft plan in early 2024, then had to rework it when the December 2024 changes to national policy raised its housing figure from about 830 homes a year to roughly 1,150. The November 2025 draft answers that with a stepped target: at least 900 homes a year for the first five years after adoption, then at least 1,287 a year to 2042. Its main proposals are:

Area	What the November 2025 draft proposes
Basingstoke town	500 homes in the town centre and 1,000 at Basing View, plus Northern Manydown (already permitted for up to 3,500 homes), Southern Manydown (2,750 in the plan period), Whitmarsh Lane extended by 600 homes at Lodge Farm, and about 300 north of Pack Lane.
Popham Garden Village	Enlarged from 3,000 to about 4,250 homes on the Popham Airfield site, with about 1,800 expected by 2042.
Upper Swallick Garden Village	About 2,500 homes in total and 1,200 by 2042, near Cliddesden and Ellisfield with access from the A339 and B3046, a new primary school and a village centre.
Tadley and the north	About 235 homes at Skates Lane, Tadley, and about 350 at West End Farm, Mortimer.
Rural towns and villages	About 500 homes at Oakley Farm, Wash Water, and housing figures of 410 for Overton, 185 for Whitchurch and 165 for Kingsclere.

The draft gives Oakley, Bramley and several smaller villages little or no new housing, to avoid cumulative harm to their character. Land there is more likely to come forward through an application, a neighbourhood plan or a later review. Our guide to the call for sites and local plans explains how omitted land can still be argued at examination.

Water, the Downs and Aldermaston

Water supply. Local reporting in July 2026 explained that South East Water cannot yet guarantee enough water for the planned homes, after a transfer pipeline missed its delivery date and the Environment Agency refused to let the company keep drawing from one source.
The North Wessex Downs. The council's draft strategy singles out Whitchurch and Kingsclere as constrained by their closeness to the National Landscape, which keeps their housing figures modest. The Whitchurch appeal shows the weight its setting carries outside the boundary.
AWE Aldermaston. Around Tadley, the council will not support new allocations inside the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, and any future housing sites there must lie outside the defined consultation zone.
Nutrients. The council's monitoring report records applications approved in 2024/25 using strategic nitrogen mitigation, and notes that no strategic scheme yet existed for phosphorus. Which rule applies depends on where a site's waste water goes, and we check that before anything else.

Outside the emergency planning zone, none of these rules out a field by itself. They decide which evidence we commission first.

Where We Look in Basingstoke and Deane

Fields next to the built edge of Basingstoke, Chineham and the villages the town has grown towards.
Land beside Overton, Whitchurch, Oakley, Bramley or Kingsclere that reads as part of the village rather than open downland.
Sites around Tadley and Baughurst that sit outside the Aldermaston emergency planning zone.
Former farmyards, workshops and commercial land with lawful buildings or hard surfaces.
Larger holdings where part of the land could carry open space, habitat or drainage for homes on the rest.
Land with a road frontage, or a realistic way of getting one.

Land deep in the North Wessex Downs is harder, and we will say so. Our page on farmland sets out how we look at agricultural holdings of different sizes.

What We Are Watching in Basingstoke and Deane

The Next Housing Delivery Test

Results come out annually. The most recent, the Housing Delivery Test 2025, was released on 17 August 2026 and measures April 2022 to March 2025. In the 2023 measurement, which the council's December 2025 monitoring report still relied on, the borough scored 131%. The next result will drop 2022/23, the strongest of the three years in the council's own figures with 986 net completions, and add 2025/26, for which the council has not yet published completions. The same report shows the yearly target rising from 828 homes to 1,142 under the current standard method. If the next score fell below 85%, a 20% buffer would be added to the supply calculation. Below 75%, unmet need would be treated as established without any argument about supply. At 95% or more, the action plan would fall away, but the supply shortfall would remain unless the council could show otherwise.

The Plan Timetable

The council's Local Development Scheme of February 2025 showed a final draft in summer 2026, submission in winter 2026, examination in spring 2027 and adoption in winter 2027. That has not held. The council's own update in September 2026 says it will revise the timetable once it has worked through the water supply issues with its partners, and local reporting in July 2026 records that the council had asked the government for more time and did not expect a finished plan before autumn 2029.

Reorganisation, Withdrawn

In March 2026 the government decided that Basingstoke and Deane would merge with Hart and Rushmoor into a North Hampshire unitary council from 1 April 2028. On 7 September 2026, after fresh legal advice, it withdrew that decision and began a review. The borough council stays the planning authority, its adopted plan still applies, and the May 2027 elections will be held on the present boundaries.

What It Means for Timing

The borough is short of land now, and the plan that would fix that is years away. For a well placed site that points to an application under policy S5, with the plan as a second route. Our agreement stays in force for as long as an application or appeal is under consideration, so a change in the council's position part way through does not leave you exposed. The usual stages are set out in how long planning takes.

Basingstoke and Deane Landowners Ask

The council scored 94% on delivery. Why would it approve homes on my field?

Because the score is only half the picture. The council's own monitoring shows about three years of housing land, and under national policy a shortfall like that counts as proof of unmet need, so a site that sits well against a town or village can use policy S5.

My land is near Tadley. Does the Aldermaston zone rule it out?

Only if it lies inside the Detailed Emergency Planning Zone, where the council will not support new housing allocations. Land outside the zone is assessed in the normal way, and the draft plan itself proposes homes at Skates Lane on that basis.

Will the water supply problem stop any planning application?

Not automatically. The concern is about the scale of growth in the areas South East Water serves. For a single site we check how it would be supplied before recommending an application.

My village has a neighbourhood plan. Does that close the door?

Not necessarily. The Overton appeal site sat outside the settlement boundary inside a neighbourhood plan area and was still allowed, because of the supply shortfall. A neighbourhood plan that allocates sites can also be a route in its own right, and we can look at both.

Is my application still decided by Basingstoke and Deane?

Yes. The North Hampshire merger planned for April 2028 was withdrawn in September 2026 while the government reviews reorganisation, so the borough council decides applications under its adopted plan and national policy. You keep using your land throughout, and how our agreements work explains what we handle along the way.

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.