Basingstoke Local Plan: Have Your Say by 20 November

Basingstoke and Deane has formally restarted its Local Plan, and the first public consultation on the new version is open now. Residents have until 5pm on Friday 20 November to comment on what the plan should cover, and landowners have the same deadline to put forward sites.

The council published its notice to begin a new plan on Friday 9 October, alongside a timetable that runs to adoption on 20 September 2029. That is the formal end of the draft plan the borough spent years on, which was halted over water supply. We reported the decision to start again in August.

What you are being asked

This is a scoping consultation, the first of three the new national system requires. It does not propose sites or housing numbers. The council says plainly: “please do not submit any site related comments as part of this consultation as the council will only consider answers to the specific questions raised.”

The seven questions in the scoping document cover:

• the scope of the plan, what it should and should not include
• the ten key issues the council thinks the plan must address
• a draft vision for the borough in 2040
• a set of measurable outcomes the plan will be judged against
• the local policy areas it wants to keep alongside national policy
• a draft community engagement strategy for the rest of the process
• the scoping report for the plan’s integrated impact assessment

The draft vision runs to five paragraphs. Among its commitments for 2040 are “a new hospital and healthcare campus”, community health hubs, the revitalisation of the town centre and Basing View, and protection for the chalk streams and the headwaters of the Test, Itchen, Loddon and Enborne.

The key issues name the things residents argue about most: avoiding villages merging into each other, the nuclear safety zone around AWE Aldermaston, an “infrastructure first” approach, a five-year housing land supply, social rented homes, and regeneration of Basingstoke Leisure Park.

The numbers behind it

The scoping document sets the plan period at 2026 to 2040. The government’s standard method gives the borough a housing requirement of 1,166 homes a year at 1 September 2026, which comes to roughly 16,200 homes over the 14 years. Permissions already granted count towards that total. The plan’s own target is still to be worked out, and every outcome in the document that needs a figure currently reads “XXX”.

Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppXCopy linkEmbed

Other figures from the document’s evidence base:

• 4,385 households were on the housing register in April 2026, and 805 homes were advertised during 2025/26
• more than 360 people are on the self-build and custom housebuilding register
• the borough’s population is projected to pass 222,000 by 2040, up from about 195,000 now, with 27% aged 60 and over
• the 2025 economic needs assessment found a need for 24,000 sq m of offices, 37,000 sq m of industrial space and 177,000 sq m of warehousing and logistics up to 2042

Why it restarted

New regulations in March 2026 replaced the old plan-making system. Councils could stay on the old one only by submitting a plan by 31 December 2026. The document says that was impossible because South East Water, the Environment Agency and Natural England raised “serious concerns” about the resilience of drinking water supply in parts of the borough. The council asked the government for an extension. It was not granted, “although discussions are ongoing”.

The water problem has not gone away. The council says the plan “cannot substantially progress until a robust solution to the water supply issue has been identified”, so it is running the early stages in parallel while that work continues. Cabinet member for strategic planning and infrastructure Councillor Andy Konieczko said the council had been working with South East Water for six months “to understand exactly what this means for residents”.

Three rounds of consultation on the old draft, the last two in 2024 and 2025/26, are not wasted. The council says the evidence and responses “will continue to play an important role” in the new plan.

The timetable

The published timetable took effect on 9 October and is reviewed monthly.

The September Cabinet report had given 22 September 2029; the published timetable moves it two days earlier.

The call for sites

Running alongside, the call for sites asks anyone, owner or not, to suggest land for:

• housing, with brownfield land and small sites (under 1 hectare) and medium sites (1 to 2.5 hectares) “particularly encouraged”
• Gypsy and Traveller pitches
• employment
• renewable energy and biodiversity net gain
• nutrient mitigation in the Test and Itchen catchments

Sites already submitted to the old plan or listed in the council’s land availability assessment do not need resubmitting unless the boundary, use or number of homes has changed. Everything submitted is published except personal details, and putting a site forward does not mean it will be allocated.

How to respond

The council strongly prefers the online consultation portal. Otherwise:

• email local.plan@basingstoke.gov.uk
• post to Local Plan, Civic Offices, London Road, Basingstoke, RG21 4AH
• paper forms from the Civic Offices or by phoning 01256 844844

Printed copies are at the Civic Offices, 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday, and at Basingstoke Discovery Centre and the Chineham, Mortimer, Newbury, Overton, Tadley and Whitchurch libraries. No drop-in events are listed. The deadline is 5pm on Friday 20 November 2026.

What it means for you

• The borough stays exposed for three more years. Without an adopted plan or a five-year housing land supply, speculative schemes are harder to refuse. The council’s own report said so in August, and nothing in this week’s documents changes it.
• This is the round for principles, not places. If you want to argue about Manydown or a field at the end of your road, the council says that comes next summer, in the content and evidence consultation timetabled for July and August 2027.
• If you own land, the call for sites is the way in. Small and brownfield sites are being asked for by name.
• Parish councils and neighbourhood plan groups are statutory consultees and will be asked to help shape the engagement strategy.

The council has also published the first Manydown South masterplan, the borough’s largest allocation, which continues under the current plan. How decisions on applications are made is changing too, from 31 October: Basingstoke planning committee loses call-ins.