Turn housing allocations into a deliverable programme

The problem and who is affected

Too few homes are being finished. Government counted about 308 net homes in the three years to March 2025, against 2,702 needed. The big sites that should supply most homes face hard barriers: flood defences, polluted land, protected bird habitat, road changes and weak viability. City Centre North has had a resolution to grant since 2023 but is being redesigned. Tipner West has an estimated £107m funding gap. Affordable completions vary sharply from year to year.

Who is affected: Households waiting for a settled or affordable home, including 608 households in temporary accommodation in March 2026; younger workers and families priced out by rents and prices; and residents near large sites who live with long-term vacant or derelict land.

What this would change

Aim: Turn the homes promised in the Local Plan into finished, occupied homes, with a clear share that local people on lower incomes can afford over the long term.

What success would mean: Completions rise towards the stepped requirement the inspectors finally accept, and the affordable share of completions becomes steadier. Each major site shows real progress from allocation to permission, start, completion and occupation. No numeric target is proposed here beyond the council’s own published trajectory, which is a forecast, not a commitment.

Publish and update a public site-by-site tracker covering every allocated and identified site. For each site it would show the planning stage, the main blocker (flood defence, contamination, habitat mitigation, road works, viability, vacant possession or funding), who must act, the next decision, and planned and actual affordable homes by tenure. Separate allocations, resolutions to grant, permissions, starts, completions and occupied homes. Use the council’s land at City Centre North, Tipner West and smaller council sites to test a permanently affordable community land trust option alongside existing council and housing association delivery.

Proposed lead: Portsmouth City Council (planning policy, housing supply and the council’s site promoter team), as a proposal. Partners: Homes England, Registered providers of social housing, Muse/ECF (appointed City Centre North master developer), Environment Agency and Coastal Partners (flood defences), Natural England (habitat mitigation), Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority (from its funding powers), A community land trust or community-led housing group, if one forms.

Powers: The council is the local planning authority and must keep an up-to-date plan, monitor delivery and, under NPPF Annex D, prepare a Housing Delivery Test action plan when delivery falls below 95% (nppf-2026). It owns City Centre North and Tipner West and can choose disposal terms, partners and tenure as landowner (pcc-m701, pcc-tipner-delivery-approach). It cannot force private developers to build out a permission, set government grant, or fund flood defences alone; the Infrastructure Delivery Plan says Tipner West defences must be funded by the developer (pcc-idp-2026). A community land trust would need its own legal form and governance; the council can transfer or lease land but must meet its own disposal and subsidy rules, which have not been checked here.

Options

• Current approach: Current approach: finish the Local Plan examination and deliver site by site. The council completes the examination (hearings run to 26 November 2026), relies on its trajectory, its 2024/25 Housing Delivery Test action plan, and project teams for City Centre North and Tipner West. Progress is reported in the annual monitoring report.
• Proposed response: Public site-by-site delivery tracker with tenure reporting. Add a public tracker that reports each site’s stage, blocker, responsible body, next decision and affordable homes by tenure, refreshed at least twice a year and reconciled with the government test.
• Proposed response: Community land trust or permanently affordable homes on council land. Test whether a community land trust, or a council-held covenant, could own or steward a share of homes on council sites so they stay affordable on resale or reletting. Needs a willing community group, land, finance and legal advice before any commitment.
• Alternative: Council-led or partnership delivery only. Rely on council housebuilding, buy-backs and housing association partners, which already supplied most affordable homes in 2022/23 to 2024/25, without a new community body.
• Alternative: Prioritise smaller, quicker sites. Concentrate effort on permissions and smaller sites that can start sooner, while large sites wait for funding. May raise early completions but adds little affordable housing because sites under ten homes do not have to provide it.

The council’s trajectory, the inspectors’ findings and Homes England funding decisions could all change the right choice. A tracker is low cost but does not itself build homes. A community land trust depends on a group forming, on land being made available below market value and on finance; national experience may not transfer to a dense island city where nearly all homes will be flats. Funding gaps at Tipner West and City Centre North could make cross-subsidy for permanent affordability harder.

Delivery plan

A first practical step: Anyone could compile and publish the site list from the council’s own September 2026 matter statements and trajectory, flagging which sites have only a resolution to grant. The council could then adopt or correct it.

Costs and funding

One-off costs

Not costed. The tracker is mainly officer time; the community land trust feasibility study would need specialist legal and financial advice.

Recurring costs

Not costed. Updating the tracker twice a year would need monitoring staff time.

Capital or revenue

Tracker: revenue. Community land trust homes: capital (land, build or purchase) plus a small revenue cost for governance support.

Funding status

No funding identified for the tracker or a community land trust. Homes England’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026 to 2036 lists community-led housing as a national priority, but no Portsmouth bid was found.

Affordability

The council faces large funding gaps on its own strategic sites (about £107m at Tipner West). Giving land at below market value for permanent affordability would reduce receipts that could otherwise close those gaps.

Costing still needed

Estimate staff days for the tracker; for the community land trust, estimate land value forgone, build or purchase cost per home, grant per home, rent or resale levels, and long-term management costs.

Benefits, risks and trade-offs

Possible benefits: Residents and councillors could see which sites are stuck and why, who must act, and whether affordable homes are actually being built. A permanently affordable model could stop discounts being lost when homes are resold. These benefits are not quantified.

Risks:

• A tracker could be read as a delivery commitment when stages and dates remain forecasts.
• Large sites may stay stalled because of funding gaps, whatever the reporting.
• A community land trust may not find a group, land or finance, and could be small and slow.
• Giving council land at below market value could worsen viability on strategic sites.
• Different definitions (government test, council monitoring, affordable supply table) could confuse readers if not explained.

Who could gain or lose: Lower-income households, families in temporary accommodation and younger workers would gain most from more affordable homes. Shared ownership helps a different, higher-income group than social rent. Existing residents near big sites may face years of construction. Land given to a community trust benefits its members, so allocation rules need to be open and fair.

Environment: Strategic sites sit next to Portsmouth Harbour, which is protected for birds, and parts of Tipner West are in flood zones 2 and 3. Delivery must include habitat mitigation, nutrient neutrality and new sea defences.

Capacity: The council’s 2024/25 action plan linked part of past under-delivery to planning service performance. Tracking, reconciling data and supporting a community land trust would need staff time in planning policy, housing supply and legal services, none of which is costed or allocated here.

How to judge progress

Reassess when: Reassess when the inspectors report on the Local Plan, when MHCLG publishes the next Housing Delivery Test, or when Homes England decides on Tipner West or City Centre North funding.

Where things stand

What is known:

• The 2025 Housing Delivery Test result is 11%: 308 homes against 2,702 required.
• The Local Plan was submitted on 18 March 2026 and hearings are running; Tipner West is now due to be heard on 19 November 2026.
• City Centre North has had a resolution to grant since 25 October 2023 but the council now assumes 1,600 homes, not 2,300, and first completions in 2029/30.
• Tipner West has an estimated funding gap of about £107m and no committed public funding.
• Affordable completions fell from 273 in 2023/24 to 59 in 2024/25.

What is not known:

• Why the government test and council monitoring give different annual totals for the same years.
• How many homes on each site are or will be social rent.
• Whether the inspectors will accept the stepped requirement and site trajectories.
• Whether any community group in Portsmouth wants to form a community land trust.
• When the Housing Delivery Test action plan responding to the 2025 result will be published.

Decisions needed:

• Whether the council will publish a site-by-site delivery tracker and how often.
• Whether to reconcile and publish the differences between the government test and council monitoring.
• Whether to commission a community land trust feasibility study and offer council land for it.
• How affordable housing on council-owned strategic sites will be secured through disposal terms.

Existing work:

• Portsmouth Local Plan examination: Hearings in progress; Tipner West, Lakeside North Harbour and Horsea Island moved to 19 November 2026; housing land supply and viability on 26 November 2026 (as of 2026-10-21).
• Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2024/25: Published June 2025 in response to the 2023 test (26%); it names site constraints, market change, land assembly, nutrient neutrality and planning service performance (as of 2025-06).
• City Centre North (22/01243/CS3): Resolution to grant conditional permission on 25 October 2023; promoter now preparing a revised application; master developer Muse/ECF appointed under a development management agreement (as of 2026-09-18).
• Tipner West (Policy PLP3): Allocation under examination for about 1,000 homes and 25,000 m² employment; council owns the freehold but leaseholders remain; funding gap about £107m (as of 2026-09-18).
• Tipner East (Policy PLP4): 835-home Vivid scheme (22/01292/FUL) under construction; 221-home Bellway scheme (21/01357/FUL) had a resolution to grant with permission expected in autumn 2026 (as of 2026-09-18).
• Future Portsmouth Plan: Council started a new-system local plan on 14 July 2026; the current plan continues as a legacy plan (as of 2026-07-14).

UK Facts context: Housing supply: from permission to a finished home (National explainer of the stages from permission to completion; Portsmouth figures here are local.) · Housing remedies (National options and funding mechanisms; not a Portsmouth assessment.)

Next review: When the Local Plan inspectors issue their post-hearing letter or report, or when MHCLG publishes the next Housing Delivery Test measurement.. Evidence last checked 2026-11-02.

Sources

Where earlier ideas went

• housing-delivery-plan (earlier 12-point plan): expanded. This action; baseline 308 against 2,702 retained and verified; site tracker, tenure reporting and options added.
• clt-housing (earlier ten suggestions): restored. Candidate option ‘Community land trust or permanently affordable homes on council land’ with scoping task, costs, risks and an evaluation metric. Not carried forward: The 17,700-home Local Plan target (not found; the submitted requirement is 11,369, proposed to change to 11,090); the target of several hundred trust homes by the early 2030s (no evidence); ‘tens of millions’ cost (no checkable origin); short-term letting claim (not sourced); MOD and Crown Estate land (no specific site found); London CLT and St Clements examples (not checked).