Hampshire council area

Selling Land in East Hampshire

East Hampshire cannot show five years of housing land, has stepped back from the local plan it meant to submit this year, and has seen a planned split between two new unitary councils withdrawn. For landowners around Alton, Whitehill and Bordon, Liphook and the southern parishes, national policy is now doing much of the work that an up to date local plan would normally do.

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East Hampshire in Outline

East Hampshire District Council covers Alton, Four Marks, Whitehill and Bordon, Liphook and Grayshott, with the southern parishes of Horndean, Clanfield and Rowlands Castle. Much of the country in between, including Petersfield, lies in the South Downs National Park, where the National Park Authority, not the district, decides planning applications.

A district split in two for planning. The council says the Park holds 57% of the district's land but only 27% of its population and 26% of its homes, so most new housing has to come from the other part.
Delivery of 79%. That is the council's result in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, above the 75% line but short of 85%, which brings a 20% buffer into its land supply sums.
Well short of five years. The council's November 2025 statement shows 2.9 years of deliverable housing land at 1 April 2025.
A strategy from 2014. The Joint Core Strategy was adopted in May 2014, backed by the Housing and Employment Allocations of 2016 and saved policies from 2006.
A much larger target. The government's standard method for the district rose from 574 to 1,124 homes a year after the December 2024 changes, an increase of 96%, as the council's planning committee review records.

Put together, those facts describe a council whose plan is 12 years old, whose housing figure under the government's method has nearly doubled since December 2024, and whose land supply has not caught up.

East Hampshire in Figures

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

Housing Delivery Test 2025
79%
Below 85%: a 20% buffer is added to its five-year housing land supply.
Homes built against homes needed
1,413
of 1,785 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
May 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

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.

Two Planning Authorities, One District

The South Downs National Park Authority's own plan review, published for comment in 2026 and running to 2043, proposes 98 homes a year in the East Hampshire part of the Park. The district council objected, pointing out that this is 9% of the district's total need on 57% of its land, and that the rest falls on the area it controls.

The Park plan does still allocate land. The council's response notes eight proposed sites in Petersfield, which it describes as the second largest town in the Park, totalling 224 homes, and a strategic site at Liphook for 380 homes and a 65 bed care home.

If your land is	Who decides	What that usually means
Inside the South Downs National Park	South Downs National Park Authority	Growth mainly through the Park's own plan. Major development needs exceptional circumstances, so we look mostly at small and previously developed sites.
Outside the Park, next to a town or larger village	East Hampshire District Council	Judged against the 2014 strategy and national policy, with the council unable to show a five-year supply.
Outside the Park, beside the Park boundary	East Hampshire District Council	The district decides, but the effect on the Park's setting and views from the downs is part of the assessment.

We check which side of that line a field sits on before anything else, because the answer shapes everything that follows.

A Shortfall in Housing Land, and What It Opens Up

The council's November 2025 statement sets a requirement of 832 homes a year for the area outside the Park, derived by sharing the district-wide figure of 1,124 in proportion to the housing stock on each side of the boundary. Against that, plus a 5% buffer, it found 2,560 deliverable homes, or 2.9 years. It used 5% because the test result in force when it was written was above 85%.

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 changed that. With the district now at 79%, the next statement will have to add 20% rather than 5%, which raises the target the same supply is measured against. We would not guess the result, only the direction.

Under the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, a result of 79% does not by itself mean unmet need is taken as proven, since that automatic step applies only below 75%. The other route in policy S5 is the one that counts here: a council's failure to show five years of deliverable sites is itself evidence of unmet need. Where a field relates well to a settlement on the ground, and roads, schools and drainage can take the homes, that evidence gives an application a firm footing. Land already inside a town or village is judged under policy S4, which starts from a presumption that suitable development goes ahead.

The council's own record points the same way. Its May 2026 cabinet report says that, while it cannot show a five-year supply, it has approved housing applications where appropriate on that basis. A review of its planning committee by the Planning Advisory Service in February 2026 found that the share of major decisions overturned at appeal between April 2023 and March 2025 was expected to exceed the 10% level the government treats as acceptable, and that none of those appeals had followed councillors overruling their officers.

The Local Plan That Stopped Short

The council consulted on a draft plan for 2021 to 2040 between 22 January and 8 March 2024, and in all ran four early rounds of consultation that drew close to 9,000 comments. The plan was later reset to run from 2025 to 2043, and in March 2026 the council still expected to publish its final draft in late summer.

On 28 May 2026 the cabinet changed course. It agreed to stop preparing a district plan under the current system, which would have had to be submitted by 31 December 2026, and to adapt the existing work for plans prepared by the new councils. The report gives the reasons as unresolved evidence on transport modelling and water supply, too little time to rework the plan after the revised national framework, and the likelihood that it would not be adopted before the district is abolished.

What That Means for Land That Was Put Forward

In May the council said its evidence and engagement would be kept to inform the strategic plans of its successors, and its response to the Park plan shows that the emerging strategy already identified Liphook as a second tier settlement. Because the land availability assessment is part of that evidence, sites already submitted to it are not lost. Our guide to call for sites and local plans explains how submissions are carried from one plan to the next.

What We Look for Across the District

Fields of 2 acres or more on the edges of Alton, Four Marks, Whitehill and Bordon, Liphook or Grayshott, outside the Park.
Land around Horndean, Clanfield and Rowlands Castle, where the council's supply statement already counts 300 homes at Horndean alone.
Land close to Whitehill and Bordon, where the council records 959 homes with outline permission still to be built.
Sites with a road frontage and a junction that can take more traffic, as the combined effect of schemes on local roads is a recurring concern.
Former yards, nurseries and farm buildings, inside or outside the Park.
Larger holdings that could also provide open space or habitat alongside homes.

Arable and grazing land outside the Park is often the strongest candidate, and our farmland page explains how we approach it. Land deep inside the Park is harder, and we will say so plainly in our review.

What We Are Watching in East Hampshire

The Next Housing Delivery Test

Results arrive yearly. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, released on 17 August 2026, measured April 2022 to March 2025. East Hampshire's 79% leaves it with a 20% buffer. A future result below 75% would make unmet need proven outright under policy S5. If it rose to 85% or more, the buffer would fall back to 5%, though on the November 2025 figures a shortfall would remain. The most recent completions in the council's supply statement are 642 homes in 2024/25, its highest since 2019/20, and that year is already inside the latest test's period. Figures for 2025/26 will be the first sign of the next result.

The Next Land Supply Statement

The current statement was published in November 2025 and looks forward from 1 April 2025. The statements are prepared from a 1 April base date, so the next in the series will look forward from 1 April 2026, and it will be the first to carry the 20% buffer.

Reorganisation, Withdrawn

The government's decision of 25 March 2026 would have put most of the district into a Mid Hampshire council with New Forest, Test Valley and Winchester, and sent Clanfield, Horndean and Rowlands Castle to a South East Hampshire council with Portsmouth, Havant, Gosport and Fareham from April 2028. Hampshire County Council brought a judicial review in June 2026, and on 7 September 2026 the government withdrew the decision on legal advice and opened a review. East Hampshire remains the planning authority, and the May 2027 elections will use the current boundaries.

In March 2026 the district council said it would weigh the unmet housing needs of Gosport, Havant and Portsmouth, but that it could only potentially meet them in its southern parishes. Under the withdrawn decision those parishes would have shared a council with the places whose needs are in question.

What It Means for Timing

Applications are decided now, under the 2014 strategy and national policy, with the supply shortfall on the record.
A new strategic plan for the district's land has no date. The council stopped its own plan expecting successor councils, and the decision to create them has since been withdrawn.
Water and transport evidence that held the district plan back will still have to be answered, site by site, in any application.

For well placed land outside the Park, that favours an application on today's evidence over waiting for a plan with no date. Land that does not yet relate well to a settlement is better kept in the council's evidence. How each route works with us is explained on how it works.

Questions About Land in East Hampshire

My land is just outside the South Downs National Park. Which council deals with it?

East Hampshire District Council, and its supply shortfall applies to your land. The Park still matters, because the effect on its setting and on views from the downs is assessed. We map the boundary against your land first.

The council is at 79%. Is that high enough to stop applications on unallocated land?

No. The result is above 75%, so need is not treated as proven automatically, but the council cannot show five years of housing land and national policy treats that shortfall as evidence of unmet need. A field that relates well to a settlement outside the Park can be put forward now.

The district plan has been dropped. Is it pointless to submit my land?

Not at all. The council has said its evidence will be kept to inform later plans, whoever prepares them, and we can also consider an application where the site already works.

I farm near Horndean. Is it still moving to South East Hampshire?

Not for now. That move was part of the reorganisation decision the government withdrew in September 2026, so East Hampshire keeps deciding applications on your land. The unmet housing needs of Havant, Gosport and Portsmouth remain a live question for the southern parishes whatever happens to the council map.

Does the water supply issue affect my land?

It can. The council named water supply as one of the unresolved issues behind its decision on the plan. We check the capacity question for your site early, and the cost of the evidence falls on us, not on you.

Tell Us About Your Land in East Hampshire

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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.