The South Downs plan allocates 224 homes across eight Petersfield sites and goes to the inspector by December. East Hampshire has dropped its own Local Plan.

Planning in Petersfield is decided by a body most people never vote for. The town sits inside the South Downs National Park, and the South Downs National Park Authority, not East Hampshire District Council, is the planning authority for it. East Hampshire says so itself: the National Park Authority “is a separate planning authority to EHDC and prepares its own Local Plan for the whole of the South Downs, including the area of East Hampshire that is inside the park.”

That distinction now matters more than it ever has, because the two authorities have gone in opposite directions. The National Park has a finished plan going to a government inspector this winter. East Hampshire has abandoned its own.

The plan that governs Petersfield

The South Downs Local Plan, Proposed Submission (Regulation 19) was published in May 2026 and consulted on from 12 May to 23 June 2026, drawing more than 2,700 representations from around 1,300 respondents.

Its housing policy, SDH1, makes provision for approximately 6,137 net additional homes over the 19 years from 2024/25 to 2042/43, or 323 a year across the whole National Park. The Authority reached that figure by rejecting the government’s standard method, which it says would imply population growth of 40,800 people, or 35%, and instead using demographic trend analysis by Iceni Projects.

Petersfield’s share of that is not small. The plan describes the town as having had a population of just over 14,000 in 2021, making it the second largest town in the National Park and home to 12.5% of its population.

The eight Petersfield sites

The Regulation 19 plan allocates eight sites in Petersfield for a combined 224 homes. Every one of them names Petersfield as the settlement and East Hampshire as the district.

The eight Petersfield housing allocations in the South Downs Local Plan Bar chart of indicative housing capacity for the eight Petersfield site allocations in the May 2026 South Downs Local Plan. Land south of Paddock Way is largest at 65 homes, then Causeway House at 40, Penns Place at 35, land south of The Causeway at 30, Drum Court at 21, the Festival Hall site at 20, The Courtyard on Heath Road at 8 and Windward on Reservoir Lane at 5. The total is 224 homes. Where the 224 allocated homes go Indicative capacity per site, South Downs Local Plan Proposed Submission (Regulation 19), May 2026. SDA11 South of Paddock Way 65 SDA8 Causeway House 40 SDA10 Penns Place 35 SDA9 South of The Causeway 30 SDA12 Drum Court 21 SDA14 Festival Hall 20 SDA13 The Courtyard, Heath Road 8 SDA15 Windward, Reservoir Lane 5 SDA11 may come forward as a 124-bed care home instead of 65 dwellings. SDA10 Penns Place is by far the largest site at 32.98 hectares, but almost all of it stays in sports use. SDA13, SDA14 and SDA15 together account for 33 homes on less than 1.5 hectares.
Two of the eight sites carry nearly half the total; three of them carry 33 homes between them.
Petersfield site allocations, South Downs Local Plan Proposed Submission, May 2026
RefSiteAreaIndicative capacity
SDA8Land at and to the rear of Causeway House3.45 ha40 homes, plus redevelopment of Causeway House
SDA9Land south of The Causeway1.53 ha30 homes
SDA10Land at Penns Place32.98 ha35 homes, with sports uses retained and enhanced
SDA11Land south of Paddock Way4.14 ha65 homes, or a care home of about 124 beds
SDA12Land at Drum Court0.13 ha21 homes
SDA13The Courtyard, Heath Road0.06 ha8 homes and 160 sqm of commercial space
SDA14Land at Festival Hall0.84 ha20 homes, 160 sqm commercial, public car and cycle parking
SDA15Land at Windward, Reservoir Lane0.53 ha5 homes

Three of them are worth knowing about in detail.

SDA10, Penns Place is by area the giant, at nearly 33 hectares, but the allocation is only 35 homes: the plan requires a comprehensive site-wide masterplan produced with the community, and the retention and enhancement of the sports uses that already sit there.

SDA14, Land at Festival Hall ties the plan directly to the town council’s long-running Festival Hall project. The allocation is not just housing: it requires public car and cycle parking alongside the 20 homes and the commercial floorspace. The town council’s own business plan for the hall was sent for an independent Green Book review in autumn 2025, and the reviewers rated several sections red, meaning they need rewriting from scratch.

SDA11, Land south of Paddock Way is the largest housing number in the town and carries an alternative: 65 dwellings or a residential institution of roughly 124 beds. Which of those Petersfield gets is not settled by the allocation.

The plan also leans on the Petersfield Neighbourhood Development Plan, which was made part of the development plan in 2016 and modified in 2018 and 2024, and which allocates further sites of its own. Across the National Park, unimplemented neighbourhood plan allocations account for 957 homes of the supply.

What happens next, and when

South Downs Local Plan timetable
DateStage
12 May to 23 June 2026Regulation 19 consultation, now closed
12 November 2026Planning Committee reviews the responses
8 December 2026National Park Authority decides whether to submit for examination
By end of 2026Submission to the Planning Inspectorate
January 2027Inspector appointed and examination timetable confirmed
2027Adoption anticipated

The Regulation 19 window has closed, so this is no longer a consultation you can answer. It is a plan you can watch through examination.

Why East Hampshire gave up on its own plan

On 28 May 2026 East Hampshire’s Cabinet approved report EHDC/2026/051 and agreed to stop trying to submit a district Local Plan. The council calls it a “realignment”, moving from the legacy plan-making system to the government’s new one and preparing for unitary-wide plan-making instead. Council leader Cllr Richard Millard put it more bluntly: “Repeated Government changes to planning rules have torn the heart out of our local plan.”

The council had been working on that plan since 2018, through four Regulation 18 consultations that produced nearly 9,000 representations. Four things killed it:

  • Local government reorganisation. On 25 March 2026 the Secretary of State confirmed that East Hampshire District Council will be dissolved on 1 April 2028, its area split between the Mid Hampshire and South East Hampshire unitary authorities. A district plan would cover a geography that will not exist.
  • The deadline. Plans examined under the old system must be submitted by 31 December 2026, and the council judged it could not get there.
  • A new NPPF. A draft revised National Planning Policy Framework published in December 2025 says policies inconsistent with it “should be given very limited weight, except where they have been examined and adopted against this Framework”. Anything written now risks being discounted before it is adopted.
  • Water. The Environment Agency has flagged a supply and demand deficit in South East Water’s WRZ4-West zone, which extends into northern East Hampshire, with a strategic transfer scheme not expected to be operational until 2030 to 2031.

What that means for applications outside the National Park

For Alton, Whitehill, Bordon, Horndean and Clanfield, the practical consequence is a district with no up-to-date plan and no five-year housing land supply.

At a base date of 1 April 2025, East Hampshire could demonstrate only 2.9 years of housing land supply, a shortfall of 1,089 dwellings over 2025 to 2030. The government’s mandatory figure had risen from 575 to 1,142 homes a year in December 2024, a 98% increase, and the council has argued that the National Park Authority should take a fairer share of it.

A council without a five-year supply is a council whose refusals are easier to overturn on appeal. That is the position East Hampshire will now hold until vesting day.

Petersfield, inside the park, is on the other side of that line. Its planning authority does have a plan, and the plan claims 9.95 years of deliverable supply against its own 323-homes-a-year requirement.

Frequently asked questions

Who decides planning applications in Petersfield?

The South Downs National Park Authority. Petersfield is inside the National Park, and the Authority is a separate planning authority from East Hampshire District Council, with its own Local Plan. East Hampshire remains the district council for other services, and its own planning role covers the parts of the district outside the park, such as Alton and Whitehill and Bordon.

How many new homes are planned for Petersfield?

224, across eight allocated sites in the South Downs Local Plan Proposed Submission of May 2026, ranging from five homes at Windward on Reservoir Lane to 65 at Land south of Paddock Way. That is on top of allocations already made in the Petersfield Neighbourhood Development Plan.

What is the South Downs housing target?

Approximately 6,137 net additional homes between 2024/25 and 2042/43, or 323 a year, across the whole National Park under Policy SDH1. The Authority rejected the government’s standard method figure, arguing it implied population growth of 40,800 people that a National Park cannot sustainably absorb.

Can I still comment on the South Downs Local Plan?

Not on the plan as drafted. The Regulation 19 consultation closed on 23 June 2026. The next stages are the Planning Committee on 12 November 2026, the Authority’s submission decision on 8 December, and then a public examination in 2027 at which the inspector may take further evidence.

Has East Hampshire District Council scrapped its Local Plan?

It has stopped progressing one. Cabinet agreed on 28 May 2026 that it will no longer seek to submit a Local Plan by the December 2026 deadline, and will instead engage with the new planning system and prepare for unitary-wide plan making. Existing evidence is being kept and adapted.

Does East Hampshire have a five year housing land supply?

No. At 1 April 2025 it could demonstrate 2.9 years, equivalent to a 1,089-dwelling shortfall across 2025 to 2030.

Related

Sources

Planning positions move. Check the South Downs National Park Authority and East Hampshire District Council before relying on any of this for an application or a representation.