Draft Local Plan 2042
Revised Regulation 18 (2025)
Update on Revised Regulation 18 Local Plan
Public consultation on a full draft Local Plan (Regulation 18 Stage 2) took place early in 2024 identifying how the Council was aiming to deliver its housing need at the time. This was prepared in line with national policy and guidance. Since then, national planning policy has been significantly changed to reflect the Government’s ambition of increasing the delivery of housing both nationally and immediately.
This draft Local Plan identifies how the Council is seeking to meet the Government’s increase in housing need for Test Valley. We have sought to publish this as quickly as possible to be clear to our communities on how we aim to meet this need, to help safeguard against speculative development in the future and to coordinate the delivery of the necessary infrastructure.
As a result of the Government’s target to build 1.5million homes over 5 years across England, Test Valley’s housing requirement has been set at 934 homes per year across the borough. The lifetime of the plan is from 2025 to 2042 which equates to a minimum of 15,878 homes to be delivered over 17 years. Subject to the decision of the Council at the meeting on 18 June 2025, the Revised Regulation 18 local plan document will be published for public consultation which is anticipated to be over the summer 2025
The Council agenda can be accessed here: https://democracy.testvalley.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=136&MId=4360&Ver=4
Associated documentation can be accessed here. These include the:
Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) (pdf, 1.8mb)
Health Impact Assessment (pdf, 289kb)
Statement of Consultation (pdf, 5.4mb)
Statement of Consultation Appendix 3 - Schedule of Regulation 18 Stage 2 Comments (pdf, 8mb)
Infrastructure Delivery Plan (pdf, 1mb)
Equality Impact Assessment (pdf, 316kb)
Interim Sustainability Appraisal (pdf, 1.8mb)
Whilst this proposed Revised Regulation 18 document focuses solely on those matters related to addressing our increase in housing needs, the next stage will be a final draft (Regulation 19) Local Plan which will cover all matters, such as an updates to the Vision and Objectives, how we are seeking to meet employment needs and Development Management Policies.
The Revised Regulation 18 consultation in 2025 follows public consultations in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and 2024. Further details of these previous consultations are available in the following pages.