‘LOCAL people must be put in charge’ if hundreds more homes need to be built in Test Valley under government plans to fire up housebuilding, a borough MP has said. 

The government has announced that councils in England would be given mandatory housing targets to help contribute to the overall number of 370,000 new homes to be built each year.

The new targets set out by the government are aimed to boost housebuilding in areas most in need.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner revealed a radical overhaul of planning rules to create 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament. 

READ MORE: Vehicle auctioning company opening massive operations centre

In Test Valley, the number of homes needed per year has gone up from 524 to 921, which is an increase of 397 or 75 per cent. In and around Andover 525 new homes are needed each year, instead of 299.

Test Valley Borough Council has just finished consulting on the latest stage of the draft local plan, which included 1,500 new homes on two sites to the east of Ludgershall, complementing Wiltshire Council’s draft Local Plan. A further 1,400 at Bere Hill to the Southeast of Andover and 800 at Manor Farm North of Saxon Way.

MP for North West Hampshire, Kit Malthouse said: “Despite the previous government building a million homes in the last Parliament, we still have a housing crisis, and we need to build new homes. But they need to be built in the right places - and local people know best when it comes to where they should be built and what they should look like.”

He continued: “The problem is that for too many in our constituency, it feels as if they have no say or control in the planning process. Whether in Whitchurch where locals are battling a proposed development near the AONB, or the proposed solar farm north of Kingsclere, local people are feeling helpless.

“If we are to succeed in building more homes, local people must be put in charge through their Neighbourhood Plan.” 

SEE MORE: Developer opens show home for 102 new houses - here's how much they'll cost

Mr Malthouse also said he was ‘alarmed’ by new government plans to parts of green belt land as “grey belt” so they can be built on.

Romsey and Southampton North MP Caroline Nokes said: “The close to doubling of the housing numbers required in Test Valley has come as a bitter blow to all of us who have worked hard over the years to make sure housing numbers in the borough are kept at sustainable levels.

“TVBC has been left in an invidious position by the Government, with the Borough Local Plan at a stage where the borough will now be vulnerable to speculative development.”

She continued: “The formula the Government has applied ignores all the hard work TVBC has done to date. The Government needs to sort out how they can enable brownfield sites before earmarking greenfield sites in Southern Hampshire for massive development.

“Serious questions remain about the ability of the housing sector to deliver on these plans, a point I will make to the minister. This could mean land blighted for decades, with planning permission forced on local councils through appeals, but no means of actually developing them. It is a lose lose situation.”