New Forest District can show 1.53 years of housing land against the five it needs. The Local Plan review, the 8,910-home gap and what is being decided now.
One number explains most planning decisions in this district at the moment. New Forest District Council can demonstrate 1.53 years of deliverable housing land against the five years national policy requires. That is not a rounding error, and it is not a technicality: it flips the legal test that officers apply to almost every housing application, in favour of granting permission.
At the same time, two separate Local Plans are being rewritten by two separate authorities, and the National Park’s version goes out to public consultation on 17 August 2026. Here is where all of it stands.
Two authorities, and which one decides
Almost every planning misunderstanding here starts in the same place. The New Forest has two planning authorities, and which one handles your application depends entirely on which side of the national park boundary your land sits.
The practical test is the boundary, not the town name. Lymington is a district town but its northern edge runs up to the park boundary, and the Milford Road site described below sits outside the park with the boundary on the opposite side of the road.
The 1.53-year land supply, and what it changes
National planning policy requires a council to identify enough deliverable sites for five years of housing. New Forest District Council’s most recent annual statement, published in August 2025 and covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030, put its supply at 1.53 years.
That figure is stated in the council’s own officer report to the Planning Committee meeting on 12 August 2026, which sets out the consequence in plain terms. Because a five-year supply cannot be demonstrated, the policies most important for determining housing applications are treated as out of date, and paragraph 11(d) of the National Planning Policy Framework is engaged. In practice that means permission should be granted unless either a protected designation gives a strong reason to refuse, or the harm significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefit.
The gap between need and delivery is the reason. The same report gives the scale:
- Local housing need for the whole district, including the national park: 1,511 homes a year.
- Need for the area the district council actually decides: 1,254 homes a year.
- Actual completions since 2016 have ranged between 79 and 422 a year.
- Completions have been below Local Plan targets for four years running to 31 March 2025, leaving the district 739 dwellings behind its Local Plan target since April 2016.
At its best year the district built a third of what the standard method now says it needs. That is the arithmetic behind almost every contested application here.
The district’s Local Plan review
New Forest District Council is rewriting its Local Plan, and it consulted on the Regulation 18 Spatial Options and Policy Direction document from February 2026, closing on 20 March 2026.
The council’s own presentation to the New Forest Consultative Panel on 5 March 2026 sets out what it is grappling with:
| Figure | Homes |
|---|---|
| Standard method requirement (1,254 a year) | 22,572 |
| Current commitments: permissions and allocations | 6,835 |
| Potential future supply options identified | 6,747 |
| Remaining shortfall if every option were deliverable | about 8,910 |
The council’s own conclusion is that the plan “will likely set a housing target lower than full need”, with the unmet part discussed with neighbouring councils and justified at examination. The constraint is not political reluctance so much as geography: 57 per cent of the plan area is affected by the environmental designations listed at footnote 7 of the NPPF, and 21 per cent of the district is Green Belt, which national policy now requires to be reviewed for “grey belt” land where unmet housing need is high.
Five broad spatial options are being tested, and the council expects to combine them rather than pick one: growth following the existing settlement hierarchy, large expansions to towns, large expansions to towns and main villages, a new settlement, or larger-scale growth in small rural villages.
Underneath those sit 15 Strategic Development Growth Options, each a broad area capable of 100 or more homes. The named locations are Totton, Hythe, Holbury and Blackfield, Lymington, Everton, Hordle, New Milton, Ringwood and Fordingbridge, plus a potential new settlement at Downton. The council is explicit that these are options for testing rather than proposals.
One issue in that document has no equivalent anywhere else in England. Backup grazing land, the enclosed fields commoners use to take stock off the open forest in winter, mostly sits on unconstrained “whiteland” with no designation protecting it. The council’s own assessment is that national planning policy does not recognise it, so losing it to development undermines commoning, and commoning is what maintains the forest. Expect that to become a policy the plan has to invent from scratch.
What happens next
- March to autumn 2026: the council prepares the plan using consultation feedback and further evidence.
- Autumn to December 2026: public consultation on the final draft, then submission to government.
- Spring 2027: the examination in public.
- Winter 2027: inspector’s report and adoption.
Until that plan is adopted, decisions continue to be made against the Local Plan 2016-2036 Part One: Planning Strategy, the 2014 Part Two document on sites and development management, and saved policies from the 2009 Core Strategy, all of them overridden in practice by the land supply position.
The National Park’s Local Plan, out to consultation this month
The New Forest National Park Authority is running a partial and focused review of its 2019 Local Plan, covering the period 2024 to 2043.
Its housing numbers are much smaller and the gap between need and provision is much wider. An updated housing needs assessment identified 4,940 dwellings, about 260 a year. The draft plan provides for 950. The Authority’s stated reasoning is that the assessed need takes no account of land availability or environmental constraint, and that 950 is what is deliverable and suitable inside a nationally protected landscape.
The timetable is the live part. Members considered the Regulation 19 submission draft on 23 July 2026, and public consultation on it runs from 17 August to 30 September 2026. The plan and every response then go to the Secretary of State by 31 December 2026, with an inspector’s examination and a result expected in late 2027. The Authority has said it will hold drop-in sessions across all four parish quadrants of the park plus an online event, and will write to all 37 town and parish councils.
Named allocations carried in the review include land at Whartons Lane, Ashurst (allocated for around 60 homes, permission granted for 62), land at Church Lane, Sway (around 40 allocated, 46 permitted), and brownfield redevelopment at the former Lyndhurst Park Hotel, surplus land at Ashurst Hospital and the former Redmayne Engineering site at Brockenhurst.
If you want to influence the plan that governs the forest villages, the window that opens on 17 August is the last one before it goes to a government inspector.
The schemes being decided now
New Forest District Council’s Planning Committee meets on Wednesday 12 August 2026 at Appletree Court, Lyndhurst, with five applications on the agenda. Two are worth following.
65 homes at Milford Road, Pennington (24/10946)
The largest is an outline application by Pennyfarthing Homes for up to 65 homes on 4.88 hectares south of Milford Road at Pennington, on the south-western edge of Lymington. The site is part of Strategic Site Allocation SS5 in the adopted Local Plan Part One, so the principle of housing there was settled years ago. Access is the only detail being decided now; everything else is reserved. Officers recommend approval subject to a Section 106 agreement.
The interesting part is the affordable housing. Local Plan Policy HOU2 sets a 50 per cent affordable housing target on sites like this. The applicant initially proposed none, on viability grounds. A revised assessment in January 2026 offered 17 per cent. The council’s own viability adviser concluded 30 per cent was achievable in a policy-compliant tenure mix. After what the report calls lengthy negotiation, the offer landed in April 2026 at 25 per cent, 16 homes, and officers are recommending that be accepted.
That is the shape of a lot of New Forest housing decisions: a policy target of 50 per cent, a viability argument, and a settled figure at half the target. Whether members accept it is the question on 12 August.
37 more bedrooms at the Premier Inn, Hordle (26/10136)
The second is a hotel expansion at The Three Bells, Silver Street, Hordle: converting part of the existing restaurant to add 10 bedrooms, plus a new two-storey building with 27 more. Officers recommend approval subject to habitat mitigation and Bird Aware Solent contributions. Those two contributions appear on nearly every application in this district and are the practical cost of building next to internationally protected habitat.
The other three items are smaller: two bungalows at The Close, Holbury; a change of use to a holiday let at Mushroom Farm, Rockbourne; and a replacement outbuilding at Myrtle Cottage, Crow, near Ringwood.
How to check or comment on an application
The district council’s planning register and the National Park Authority’s register are separate. Work out which side of the boundary your site is on first, then use that authority’s register. Committee agendas, reports and minutes for the district council are published at democracy.newforest.gov.uk, which is where the officer reports quoted on this page come from, and they go up roughly a week before each meeting.
For what all of this means for prices, see our page on New Forest house prices: a district that has built a third of what it needs for a decade is also a district where the average home costs £375,728.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides planning applications in the New Forest?
It depends on the boundary. Inside the national park, the New Forest National Park Authority decides, covering Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Sway, Ashurst, Beaulieu and Minstead. Outside it, New Forest District Council decides, covering Totton, the Waterside, Lymington, New Milton, Ringwood and Fordingbridge. Hampshire County Council handles minerals and waste, and comments as highway authority on both.
Does New Forest District Council have a five-year housing land supply?
No. Its latest published figure is 1.53 years, from the statement published in August 2025. Because of that, paragraph 11(d) of the NPPF applies and the presumption in favour of sustainable development is engaged on housing applications.
How many new homes does the New Forest need?
The standard method gives 1,511 homes a year for the whole district and 1,254 a year for the area the district council controls, which is 22,572 homes to 2043. Even counting every commitment and every option identified, the council estimates a shortfall of about 8,910 homes.
When will the New Forest Local Plan be adopted?
The district council’s timetable puts consultation on the final draft in autumn 2026, submission to government by the end of 2026, examination in spring 2027 and adoption in winter 2027. The National Park Authority’s separate plan is due to be submitted by 31 December 2026 with a result in late 2027.
How do I comment on the National Park Local Plan?
Consultation on the Regulation 19 submission draft runs from 17 August to 30 September 2026. The Authority is holding drop-in sessions in all four parish quadrants of the park plus an online event, and is writing to all 37 town and parish councils.
Is there a new town planned in the New Forest?
A new settlement at Downton is one of 15 strategic growth options being tested by the district council. It is an option under assessment, not a proposal, and no decision has been taken.
Sources
- New Forest District Council Planning Committee, 12 August 2026 agenda and officer reports, for the 1.53-year land supply figure, the completion history, and the Milford Road and Premier Inn applications.
- New Forest District Council Local Plan review presentation to the New Forest Consultative Panel, 5 March 2026, for the 22,572 requirement, the 8,910 shortfall, the spatial options, the strategic growth areas and the adoption timetable.
- New Forest National Park Authority Local Plan review FAQs, for the 4,940 assessed need, the 950 provided and the named allocations.
- New Forest National Park Authority, next steps for the Local Plan review, for the 23 July 2026 committee date, the 17 August to 30 September consultation and the submission deadline.
- New Forest National Park Authority response to the district council’s Regulation 18 consultation, for the consultation closing date and the Authority’s position.
Planning positions change with every committee and every consultation. Check the authority’s own register before relying on anything here.
Have your say
We read every message. To comment on this story, email the newsdesk and we may publish a selection of responses: hello@newforestdaily.co.uk.