Agenda item

In accordance with Standing Order 21, Cllr Alex Wade will move the following motion:-

Council notes:

That the Government is pushing forward with an agenda to encourage Councils to build more homes, and reform the planning system, including some changes that this Council has raised serious concerns about.

NFDC faces serious challenges over affordable homes for it’s Residents, with 2000 Families/Individuals on the waiting list for a NFDC property, alongside limited space for new developments due to a significant percentage of our area being within a National Park.

In 2.4 of The adopted Local Plan 2016-2036 Part 1: Planning Strategy seeks to deliver a new housing requirement of at least 10,420 (net) dwellings for the period 2016-2036. Policy STR5 sets out a stepped housing target as follows:

·   2016/17 to 2020/21 - 300 dwellings per annum

·   2021/22 to 2025/26 - 400 dwellings per annum

·   2026/27 to 2035/36 - 700 dwellings per annum

National house building targets remain a difficult target to be met for our Authority, and as the current Local Plan is more than five years old and its strategic housing policies need to be updated, the Council is now required to use the standard method housing need figure as the basis for calculating its five-year housing land supply requirement. The current (as of August 2025) standard method local housing need for the New Forest District (including the National Park) is 1,511 dwellings per annum.

Recent sales of major Police Station sites in Lymington and Hythe could have made a considerable difference in reaching our original 600 NFDC built homes, and supported wider Housing need as set out in our local Plan. Both sites if agreed to be passed to NFDC earlier could have contributed to wider social benefit, by providing safe , secure, centrally located homes for local Families. It is proven how having a home can be the foundation for your wellbeing.

By allowing a fellow public service priority,  this proposal could support local housing need as reflected in our local plan and the neighbourhood plans created by local Town and Parish Councils. It would also reflect how our authority wishes to maintain local leadership over housebuilding and a willingness to develop and build homes for our local Families.

 Council recommends:

1.     That the Leader of the Council write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, the Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness and our Members of Parliament for New Forest East and West, requesting that the Government should consider a proposal where any sale of a public asset is offered to a fellow public body, first and not necessarily to the highest bidder from the private sector.

2.     That the Council engages with the LGA to seek wider support for a campaign that allows public assets to be maintained for the wider community benefit and not sold off solely for profit.

Cllr Cullen will second the motion.

Under the provisions of Standing Order 42, the above motion, after being proposed and seconded (without speeches), should stand referred to the body within whose terms of reference the subject matter of the motions comes, or the Cabinet or such Committees or Panels that the Council may determined.

The Chairman may allow the motion to be dealt with at this meeting if they consider it urgent, convenient or conducive to the despatch of business.