THE future of plans for 2,000 homes at Barton Farm was today unclear after the Government announced it was scrapping Labour’s regional housing targets.

The Queen’s Speech on Tuesday proposed that a bill to give more power to local councils to set their own housing targets and end the system whereby they are told how many homes to plan for.

Housing campaigners hope the news could give greater strength to the long-running campaign against CALA Homes plans for the farmland on the city’s northern edge.

But Cllr Kelsie Learney, city council leader, called for greater clarity on what the bill will mean for schemes, such as Barton Farm, which are already on the table, with a planning committee meeting scheduled for June 14 and a public inquiry in September.

It may well be that the planning inspector in September will still be operating with the current planning policy, making a decision to approve Barton Farm more likely.

Cllr Learney said the detail of the Government bill was unclear: “The reality is we still don’t know. We will almost certainly have local housing targets which might be the same as in the South East Plan. We are waiting for more detail about what will be in the bill. At the moment we are groping in the dark.”

There will still be pressure for councils to allow house-building even without the regional targets. “Local authorities have to demonstrate their own local plans are satisfying local housing need. We have in Winchester a high level of housing demand and a high level of need,” she added.

Steve Tilbury, city council’s corporate director, said: “Officers’ recommendations to members have to be based on development policies as they stand at the time they make the recommendation. If the application goes to appeal the inspector will consider policy as it stands at that time, if it has been revised the inspector will take that into account.”

A senior Conservative councillor, Shaun Woodward, leader of Fareham Borough Council and chairman of PUSH (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire) said no council would “be able to draw up the drawbridge and retreat into nimbyism.”

Cllr Woodward thinks the new figures that will emerge in the coming months and years may well be similar to the 80,000 in the PUSH region that includes part of the Winchester district.

Gavin Blackman, of the Save Barton Farm Group, was pessimistic about the impact of the new bill. He believes all Winchester politicians are committed to developing Barton Farm.

“I don’t think the new Government is a ‘get out of jail’ card. They (councillors) want affordable homes and they think Barton Farm is the place for many of them.”

Of the 2,000 homes at Barton Farm, some 800 will be for people currently on council waiting lists.

Winchester MP Steve Brine said the new devolved powers would give councils greater flexibility. “They will be able to control their areas and decide what is built and what their areas can sustain. It is up to Winchester council to decide if it wants to revisit Barton Farm. Before, there was never a choice. Now local councils will arrive at decisions in consultation with local people.”

Under the South East Plan, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight had been told to plan for 102,000 new homes by 2026.