Whitehall target on homes ‘a disaster for the city’
Whitehall’s 17,700 target dubbed ‘a disaster waiting to happen’
RELUCTANT city leaders are bracing themselves to push ahead with housing plans ‘forced upon Portsmouth’ by the government which have been branded ‘a disaster waiting to happen’.
Portsmouth City Council’s powerful cabinet committee are next week due to green-light a
£30,000 six-week consultation programme into the island’s controversial local plan.
The 267-page document sets out the city’s development ambitions for the next 15 years.
It covers everything from future strategic housing projects and infrastructure improvements, to plans to tackle pollution and economic booster packages.
But the head of Portsmouth City Council, Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson has admitted he is dismayed by the proposals, which he says the authority was forced to put together to fulfill a crippling Whitehall target of 17,700 new homes.
In a scathing broadside against Boris Johnson’s government, Cllr VernonJackson said: ‘I don’t think the government knows and understands quite what damage they’re trying to inflict on the city. It's a disaster waiting to happen and completely unattainable. It will cause enormous harm to the city and to the people of Portsmouth.
‘We had to produce a long list of developable sites in the city and to hit the government target - which we all oppose - of building more than 17,000 houses in the next 15 years in Portsmouth. ‘We’re an island city, we just don’t have that space. But the government is forcing us to produce a plan to do that.’
Five key strategic development sites have been earmarked for radical overhauls to help the city hit its new homes target, which will see thousands of new homes built.
The areas include Tipner, the city centre, Fratton Park and the Pompey Centre, Cosham, St James’s and Langstone Campus and Lakeside North Harbour. A huge 3,500 new homes
It's a disaster waiting to happen and completely unattainable. Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson
could be built as part of the council’s controversial £1bn Tipner West masterplan which has faced fierce opposition from environmental groups and politicians.
The local plan also supports Portsmouth FC’s ambition to upgrade Fratton Park from 25,000 capacity to 30,000.
As part of this, 500 new dwellings could be built
on land currently owned by Pompey to the south of Rodney Road.
A further 250 homes could potentially be unlocked through developments around the Pompey Centre, in Fratton Way and Goldsmith Avenue. A redevelopment of Cosham’s district centre could bring a further 750 homes, as well as new retail space.
While in Milton, a total of 436 new dwellings are proposed as part of the overhaul of the St James’ Hospital and Langstone Campus area. This would include a conversion of the former hospital and development of the site around it to create 209 new homes.
The southern part of the site previously occupied by the Harbour School is envisaged to be able to accommodate 107 residential properties. Lakeside in North Harbour is set to remain Portsmouth’s ‘premier office location’.
However, with changes in how workplaces operate following the pandemic, with more people working from home, the draft plan said there needs to be a degree of ‘flexibility’ - with potential for up to 500 new homes at the 135-acre site.