Decision details

[Councillor Reid declared a non pecuniary interest in this item by virtue of representing a division in the Basingstoke area]

[Councillor Mans declared a non pecuniary interest in this item by virtue of being a Director of the Solent LEP and the Enterprise M3 LEP]

Cabinet received a report of the Director of Economy Transport and Environment regarding Strategic Transport Infrastructure and Capital Funding Opportunities.

The key points of the report were introduced and the County Council’s success in attracting external funding and working in partnership was noted.

With the agreement of the Chairman, Councillor Burgess addressed the meeting. He introduced himself as one of the elected County Councillors for Gosport and expressed his concern that the Welborne development appeared to be disregarded in section seven of the report. He noted that this would incorporate new housing and an improvement to the motorway junction to the benefit of the wider area. In contrast, the Manydown development was not formally announced as a Garden Town. Councillor Burgess proposed therefore that Cabinet award Welborne priority one status for the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) application.

The Director of Economy, Transport and Environment provided additional context to the application that was being proposed. Recognising the points made by Councillor Burgess and the significance of the Welborne development, he confirmed that for a number of reasons relating to the scale of the development opportunity and its deliverability, Manydown better met the strict HIF application requirements. The Director highlighted further developments in Botley and Hedge End, which could present future opportunities to secure infrastructure funding.

Cabinet were in agreement that infrastructure should be in place to underpin any housing development. It was noted that the South East of England, excluding London, receives a disproportionately low level of government funding compared with other parts of the country. The guidelines in place for the application for HIF funding were acknowledged and on this basis and given the position of each development, it was agreed that Manydown should be ranked first. With reference to disappointment that an inflexible requirement to give priority ranking to the bids wasn’t suited to a large authority area such as Hampshire, where there was more than one large housing proposal contributing to the Government’s housing ambitions, it was also proposed and agreed that Cabinet should write to the Secretary of State requesting that both bids receive consideration.

With an addition to reflect the agreement to write to the Secretary of State, the recommendations in the report were proposed and agreed. The Decision Record is attached.