19/03/2025

Matthew Pennycook, Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, met with EHDC officers and East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds on Monday 10 March and agreed that the district faces a unique situation with more than half of it protected from development because it is in the South Downs National Park
Damian Hinds, MP for East Hampshire, said: “The huge increase in the housing target for our area – up by 98% since the new government came in – is unrealistic and wrong, as I said in the debate I led recently in Parliament. The constraint of the National Park exacerbates that. It is good that the minister has heard our case but we will have to see if that translates to change. I will continue to press on these points.”