Local Plan - Frequently Asked Questions
What is a local plan – and do we need one?
The Council adopted a 15-year local plan in 2023, why is a new one being prepared already?
Why have housing numbers increased?
Why can't some councils meet their housing needs?
What is a five-year housing land supply?
What is a local plan – and do we need one?
A Local Plan is the council's long-term blueprint for how our area will grow and change. It sets out where homes, jobs and services should go, what infrastructure is needed to support them, and how we protect our environment and communities. It covers housing, the economy, infrastructure, community facilities and green spaces.
Fareham Borough Council has a legal duty to prepare and keep an up-to-date Local Plan. This includes identifying enough land to meet the housing requirement set by Government. If we fail to do this, our position does not improve, it becomes significantly worse.
Without an adopted Local Plan, the council's ability to resist inappropriate or speculative planning applications is greatly weakened. Developers would be more likely to submit proposals in locations that suit them, rather than those that are best for the borough, and it would be much harder for the council to refuse them.
A Local Plan is also critical for infrastructure planning. Individual planning applications are only required to provide infrastructure that mitigates their own impacts, not the cumulative effects of growth. The Local Plan allows us to plan strategically, setting out what is needed, where it should go, and how it will be delivered. Without an up-to-date plan, securing this wider, coordinated infrastructure becomes increasingly difficult.
If the council does not produce a Local Plan, there is a risk that Government could intervene, resulting in decisions being taken away from the local area altogether. This would mean a loss of local democratic control.
Preparing a Local Plan involves difficult choices. However, it is far better that these decisions are made locally by the council, informed by residents and stakeholders, rather than left to developers through appeals or imposed by Government.
The Council adopted a 15-year local plan in 2023, why is a new one being prepared already?
Councils are expected to review their Local Plans at least every five years to make sure they align with national policy and can be given full weight in planning decisions. Where a plan becomes out of date, its ability to control development is weakened, increasing the risk of speculative and unplanned development through appeals.
The Local Plan adopted in 2023 was prepared using the Government planning policies and housing requirements that were in place at that time. Since then, national planning policy has changed significantly, including a substantial increase in housing numbers. This means that the 2023 plan no longer reflects the current policy framework we are legally required to work within.
Producing a new Local Plan now is therefore about maintaining local control. It allows the council to respond to higher housing targets in a planned and coordinated way, rather than reacting to individual planning applications driven by developers. It also enables infrastructure, environmental protection and community needs to be considered alongside growth.
The adopted Local Plan provides an important and valuable foundation for the next plan. In particular, it establishes agreed housing and employment allocations, underpinned by extensive evidence and technical work. These allocations are expected to form the starting point and be carried forward into the new Local Plan, meaning the work does not need to be repeated from scratch but can be built upon and refined as requirements are updated.
Not preparing a new Local Plan would leave Fareham in a much weaker position, with fewer tools to manage development and a greater risk of decisions being taken through appeals or intervention rather than through a locally led plan.
Why have housing numbers increased?
Housing numbers have increased because the Government has made boosting housing delivery a national priority. It has committed to building 1.5 million new homes during this Parliament and has changed national planning policy and the method for assessing housing need to support this ambition.
As a result, housing targets have risen significantly across the country, including in Fareham. Under the updated methodology, Fareham's assessed housing requirement has increased from 498 homes per year in 2024 to 779 homes per year in 2026.
In addition, national planning policy places strong emphasis on effective cross-boundary cooperation. The National Planning Policy Framework expects councils to engage constructively with neighbouring authorities to address strategic matters, including housing need, where these cannot be met within a single local authority area.
As part of preparing its Local Plan, Fareham is therefore expected to actively consider requests from neighbouring councils to help accommodate unmet housing needs, alongside meeting its own housing requirement.
Why can't some councils meet their housing needs?
All councils are required to make every reasonable effort to meet their own housing needs. However, in practice, some areas face very significant constraints that limit how much development they can realistically accommodate.
These constraints can include already high levels of development, the presence of irreplaceable habitats, Green Belt land, national parks or protected landscapes, and areas at high risk of flooding. In some locations, these constraints mean there is very little suitable land available for further growth.
While Fareham also faces constraints – including internationally and nationally designated habitats and areas of flood risk – the borough still contains areas of countryside land that are not protected to the same degree as Green Belt or national park land.
Any council that considers it cannot meet its identified housing need must clearly demonstrate this through its Local Plan. This position is tested rigorously at examination by an independent planning inspector and is often closely scrutinised by developers and other stakeholders. The inspector must be satisfied that all reasonable options have been explored before concluding that a council cannot meet its full requirement and that the plan is sound.
Fareham will ensure that any authority seeking assistance has genuinely exhausted its own opportunities for housing delivery and has made every reasonable effort to meet its needs within its own area before considering whether help is appropriate.
Fareham will soon be dissolved through Local Government Reorganisation, shouldn't we wait and let the new unitary authority make these decisions?
No. While local government reorganisation will change how councils are structured, it will not remove the need to plan for future housing, jobs, infrastructure and environmental protection.
The Government has made clear that local planning authorities must continue to progress Local Plans during the transition to new council structures. Housing and economic growth needs will not be paused because of local government reorganisation, and the requirement to plan positively for development will remain.
Delaying preparation of a Local Plan would not prevent development from taking place. Instead, it could reduce the Council's ability to influence where growth occurs and how it is delivered. Without an up-to-date Local Plan, planning decisions are more likely to be taken in the context of national planning policy rather than a locally prepared strategy, giving communities less influence over the location, form and infrastructure associated with new development.
What is a five-year housing land supply?
A five-year housing land supply is a national measure of whether a council has identified enough deliverable housing sites to meet its housing requirement for the next five years.
Councils must calculate this supply using the housing number set by the Government, not a locally chosen figure. In addition, a buffer of between 5% and 20% is applied, depending on past delivery performance, to ensure certainty and choice in the housing market.
In simple terms, the five-year supply shows whether there is sufficient land that is available now and realistically capable of being built out within five years to meet these targets.
At present, Fareham can demonstrate around 2.99 years' supply, which means we do not have a five-year housing land supply.
This has significant consequences for how planning applications are assessed. Where a council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply, national policy requires planning decisions to be weighted in favour of approval, including for new housing This can sometimes lead to developers making speculative applications and makes it much harder for the council to refuse proposals on sites it does not consider suitable for development.
This places decision-makers in a very difficult position. Even where the council refuses an application, unless it can clearly demonstrate that the harm would be significant and demonstrable, a planning inspector is likely to allow the development on appeal.
Fareham is not alone in facing this challenge. Since the Government introduced higher housing targets, the vast majority of councils across the country are currently unable to demonstrate a full five-year housing land supply.