East Hampshire is under mounting pressure to build thousands of new homes as it struggles to meet soaring Government housing targets.

Now, 250 years after Jane Austen’s birth, the countryside around Alton that inspired her greatest novels has been drawn into that debate.

In 1801, when Austen was 25, England’s population stood at 8.3 million. By 2021 it had reached 56.5 million – a seven-fold increase that is driving housing pressure nationwide, including our region.

In 2010 the South Downs National Park was created, covering 57 percent of East Hampshire but not the remaining 43 percent along the A31 corridor where Austen roamed.

The Government wants more houses and developers want to build them, but East Hampshire District Council cannot demonstrate the five-year housing land supply needed to resist the ‘tilted balance’ in favour of development. The district’s housing target has also been doubled.

Objectors at planning meetings accompany detailed planning arguments with calls for the council to stand up for residents who face thousands of new neighbours.

Sir Charles Cockburn, chair of the A31 Alliance – which represents groups opposing development from Ropley to Bentley – said the rules were unfair.

He said: “Asked to do the impossible and unconscionable, the principled and correct response would have been to call the Government’s bluff and refuse.

“Two-thirds of local planning authorities don’t have an up-to-date Local Plan. There are simply not enough planning inspectors to put all of them into special measures.

“Yet East Hampshire District Council’s answer has been to facilitate an outcome that even they say they don’t want, instructing officers to go all out to complete a plan that suits no-one, except the large developers.

“The A31 Alliance recognises that some houses will have to be built. But we are strongly opposed to the urbanisation of our countryside when there is no evidence of need, demand nor justification for such a huge house building programme.”

The A31 Alliance includes the Bentley Action Group, Fight 4 Four Marks, Stand with Medstead Against Speculative Housing, Say No to Chawton Park Farm and Save Neatham Down.

Mr Cockburn added: “We recognise that there is a housing crisis in East Hampshire and that new housing must be built.

“However, the Local Plan must be based upon evidenced local need – one, two and three-bedroom affordable dwellings.”

The council said it was under a legal duty to have a Local Plan, regardless of its contents.

A spokesperson said: “East Hampshire District Council has a legal duty to prepare and maintain an up-to-date Local Plan. This is not optional.

“The Local Plan is the cornerstone of the planning system and the best way for communities to be involved in the planning process from the early stages, to understand where future development will go and what infrastructure will be delivered alongside development.”

The spokesperson said the consequences of not having a plan would be worse.

They said: “This is what will happen without an up-to-date Local Plan. Speculative development will increase – planning permission is more likely to be granted on unallocated sites, and the council and our communities will have less ability to shape outcomes.

“There will be no infrastructure – decisions will be made case-by-case, without an up-to-date Infrastructure Plan, leading to piecemeal development and inadequate infrastructure.

“Councils without an up-to-date Local Plan face the real possibility of the government stepping in and taking over plan-making directly. This would remove local democratic control.”

The council has produced a Land Availability Assessment identifying 274 potential housing sites, including Chawton Park Farm, Neatham Down, Windmill Hill and large new sites in Bentley and Holybourne.

The spokesperson said: “The Land Availability Assessment is not a draft Local Plan, instead it is a technical document which includes all potential development sites.

“This forms the basis of a list of sites to be considered for allocation in the Local Plan. They will be examined and assessed for suitability and those that are not considered suitable will not be allocated for development in the Local Plan.”

Mr Cockburn said the proposed new unitary authority, due in April 2028, could offer a way forward.

He said: “We believe East Hampshire District Council should recognise the local government reform context, the number of houses it has been required to build, and the question about where to put them, have all radically changed.

“It should re-run its public Regulation 18 consultations. To do otherwise would be an affront to democracy and a self-evident breach of East Hampshire District Council’s new constitution.”

The council said Local Plans must be submitted for examination by Tuesday, December 31, 2026.

The spokesperson added: “There is no benefit in terms of ‘preventing development’ of running another Regulation 18 consultation. By the time a Local Plan were in place, the decisions would have been made through the planning application process.”

The council said further opportunities would be available to shape the Local Plan as it seeks to find sites for 832 homes a year within its 43 percent of the district.

The spokesperson said: “The Local Plan is still being compiled. The next public consultation on the Local Plan will take place around summer 2026. After that, it will be scrutinised by a government-appointed planning inspector at a public hearing, expected to be summer 2027.

“Sites will need to be found in the district to accommodate these homes. If we don’t allocate sites for this level of development then it is unlikely our Local Plan will be approved by the government-appointed inspector – and that will cause us the problems already explained.

“Development sites will be spread throughout the district in the most suitable locations, including but not exclusive to the A31.”

The council said it was pressing the Government for a fairer solution over the South Downs National Park.

The spokesperson said: “Since 2021 we have persistently been calling on the government to look sensibly at this district’s unique situation and have been in regular correspondence with the government on this issue.

“We are fighting for fairness, but we also must accept that simply ignoring the government and refusing to co-operate will make things worse not better.

“We must compile a Local Plan that makes every effort to meet the government’s housing targets. If we do not, the government has confirmed it will take action against authorities without up-to-date Local Plans.

“Without an agreed Local Plan we will have much less control over development and the campaigners’ worst fears are more likely to be realised.”

Mr Cockburn said the new unitary authority would have a wider range of land available than East Hampshire’s largely rural district.

He said: “Should East Hampshire press ahead with its Local Plan, we see no way the sites can be un-allocated; the damage will be irreversible and the unitary authority confronted with a fait accompli.”

The council said housing demand across Hampshire would still have to be met.

The spokesperson said: “The cumulative housing needs across Hampshire, including the new unitary authorities, must still be met.

“There is potential that wider unmet needs associated with more constrained areas of Hampshire, including the Solent, may have to be met by less constrained areas such as East Hampshire.”

Opposition to the scale of development is reflected in the Save Jane Austen Country petition, which has attracted 22,263 signatures: www.change.org/p/save-jane-austen-country