Winchester City Council questions Government targets for new homes (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Winchester City Council questions Government targets for new homes

5:30pm Friday 19th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

Winchester civic chiefs are challenging the Government about how many homes should be built in the district.

The city council is leading a drive by local authorities across Hampshire to reduce the targets set by Westminster.

The Government has called for more than 12,000 extra homes to be built in the Winchester district by 2026.

However, the figure was set before the recession, and civic chiefs argue that it has been overtaken by events.

Cllr George Beckett, the leader of Winchester City Council, told Tory cabinet colleagues at a meeting that the targets were "unreasonable and undesirable".

He said he had written to the Government to call for a re-think.

He added that several other local authorities had signed it, including Eastleigh, Southampton, Fareham and Gosport.

Cllr Beckett said it would now be discussed by MPs on the South East Regional Select Committee at Westminster.

The city council’s search for sites to build the 12,000 homes demanded has already caused controversy.

Barton Farm at Winchester could provide 2,000 of them, but hundreds of residents marched through the city to protest last year.

The majority of councillors voted to include the greenfield site in their 20-year plan, only for Westminster to reject the document on technical grounds.

The council is now drawing up its revised strategy while also lobbying the Government to change the figures.