Fleet planning: 2,160 homes at Murrell Green on the table

The largest planning application Hart has seen in years is sitting on the council’s register right now. Reference 26/01201/OUT seeks outline permission for up to 2,160 homes at Murrell Green, on the A30 between Hook and Hartley Wintney, and it was validated on 22 July 2026.

To put the number in proportion: 2,160 homes is nearly three years of the entire district’s annual housing need in one site, and it would add about five per cent to the total number of dwellings in Hart. It has landed at the one moment the council is least able to resist it, because Hart has had no five-year housing land supply since 1 May 2025 and its own new Local Plan is barely started.

What the Murrell Green application asks for

The application is outline, with all matters reserved except access, which means the council is being asked to agree the principle of development and the junctions, with layout, scale, appearance and landscaping to come later. The description on the register covers:

• up to 2,160 residential dwellings, including a residential institution, under use classes C2 and C3
• three vehicular, cycle and pedestrian accesses from the A30 London Road, and one from the B3016 Odiham Road
• employment floorspace, a local centre and community uses including education provision, under use classes E and F
• blue and green infrastructure with sustainable drainage, public open space, sports pitches with a pavilion, wildlife areas and Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space
• demolition of the existing buildings and structures on the site

The Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space is not a detail. Much of Hart sits within the catchment of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area, and Hazeley Heath inside the district is itself a Special Protection Area, so large housing schemes here have to provide alternative open space to draw dog walkers and recreation away from protected heathland. Any scheme of this size in Hart lives or dies partly on that.

Why the council is in a weak position

Hart’s adopted plan is the Hart Local Plan (Strategy and Sites) 2032, adopted on 30 April 2020, and it set a housing requirement of 423 homes a year. That was comfortable. The council had a good five-year land supply and could refuse speculative applications on the strength of it.

In December 2024 the Government changed the standard method for calculating local housing need, and Hart’s annual figure went from 423 to 750. Its five-year land requirement jumped from 1,386 homes to 3,909. The council’s own report to its Development Management Committee on 22 January 2025 spelled out the consequence: from 1 May 2025 the council would not be able to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable sites, its Local Plan housing supply policies would be treated as out of date, and the presumption in favour of sustainable development, the tilted balance, would apply.

The tilted balance is the thing to understand about every housing decision in Hart at the moment. Under paragraph 11(d) of the National Planning Policy Framework, where the relevant plan policies are out of date, permission should be granted unless the harm significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits, or the site is in a protected area. Officers told members to start applying it straight away in January 2025, four months early, because any decision taken from then on could be appealed and would be judged under the new test by the time an inspector reached it.

The figure has moved again since. In a letter dated 16 December 2025, the council’s own planning policy manager put Hart’s local housing need at 771 homes a year under the standard method, against a forecast district dwelling stock of 43,197 homes in 2025.

The new Local Plan, and how far off it is

Hart has formally started work on a replacement plan. It issued a Notice of Intention to commence a new Local Plan, and ran a scoping consultation from Wednesday 27 May to midnight on Friday 19 June 2026, asking residents what the plan should cover and how the council should consult on it.

The next stage is the one that will actually name places. The council says the scoping consultation will be followed in the autumn with a consultation on a draft vision and early ideas on how best to accommodate the growth, and it has committed to infrastructure-led growth, planning alongside improvements to schools, health services, transport and leisure. The council describes plan preparation as a 30-month process, and its Project Initiation Document of July 2025 works to a plan period ending in 2045, though the council is explicit that the 2045 date is not fixed.

Thirty months from a standing start takes the plan past April 2028, the date Hart was due to be merged into a new North Hampshire council. On 7 September 2026 the government withdrew that merger decision and began a review of reorganisation with no end date. For now, Hart remains the council writing the plan. Our report: Hart council merger withdrawn.

Updated 11 September 2026: this section previously said Hart, Basingstoke and Deane and Rushmoor would become a single council on 1 April 2028.

A decision worth knowing: the Elvetham Heath food store

Not everything is going the applicants’ way. Application 24/00611/FUL sought permission for the erection of a retail food store, class E(a)1, with access, parking and landscaping at the Park and Ride site on Elvetham Heath Way, Fleet. Hart refused it on 30 May 2025.

The applicant appealed. Hart’s register now shows the appeal status as decided, and the Planning Inspectorate’s decision, as published on the appeals database, records the appeal as dismissed on 30 July 2026 following an inquiry. A scheme large enough to be tested at inquiry, in a district under the tilted balance, still failed. That is a useful marker for anyone assuming the lack of a five-year supply makes everything permissible: the tilted balance applies to housing land supply policies, and a retail scheme is judged on other grounds entirely.

What it means for you

If you live near Murrell Green, Hook or Hartley Wintney, the access arrangements are the part of the application that is not reserved for later, so the three new junctions on the A30 and the one on the B3016 Odiham Road are being decided now rather than at a future stage. Comments on the principle and on the accesses are the ones that carry weight at this point.

If you are objecting to any housing application in Hart, arguing that the council has enough housing land will not work until the new plan is in place. The council itself accepts it cannot demonstrate a five-year supply. The arguments that still bite are the ones the NPPF leaves standing: protected areas, including Special Protection Areas and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, heritage, flooding, and harm that significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefit.

If you want a say in where growth goes rather than fighting it site by site, the autumn 2026 draft vision consultation is the moment. The scoping stage has already closed.

How to follow the planning record yourself

• Hart’s planning register is at publicaccess.hart.gov.uk, where you can search by reference, address or keyword, see the documents and comment on live applications. Search 26/01201/OUT for Murrell Green.
• Weekly lists of newly validated and newly decided applications are on the same portal under Weekly/Monthly Lists.
• Committee papers and minutes are at hart.moderngov.co.uk, including the Development Management Committee reports that set out the council’s own position on land supply.
• The new Local Plan and its consultations are at hart.gov.uk, and the planning policy team can be reached at localplan@hart.gov.uk.

Sources

• Hart District Council planning register, application 26/01201/OUT for the Murrell Green description of development, the 2,160 dwelling figure, the accesses, and the received, validated and consultation dates.
• Hart’s five-year housing land supply, Development Management Committee, 22 January 2025 for the 423 figure in the adopted plan, the 750 standard method figure, the rise in the five-year requirement from 1,386 to 3,909, and the loss of supply from 1 May 2025.
• Hart District Council letter on an indicative housing figure, 16 December 2025 for the current local housing need of 771 homes a year, the forecast 43,197 dwelling stock and the 2045 plan period in the July 2025 Project Initiation Document.
• New Hart Local Plan and Local Plan Scoping Consultation launches for the 30-month process, the 27 May to 19 June 2026 scoping consultation and the autumn draft vision consultation.
• Hart Local Plan (Strategy and Sites) 2032, adopted April 2020 for the adopted plan itself.
• Hart District Council, local government reorganisation FAQs and the government’s withdrawal letter of 7 September 2026 for the withdrawn North Hampshire merger and the pause.
• Planning Inspectorate appeal decision for Elvetham Heath Way, Fleet, dismissed 30 July 2026 following an inquiry, as listed on Appeal Finder; the refusal of 24/00611/FUL on 30 May 2025 and the appeal status are on Hart’s own register.

Applications and figures change as they progress. Check the register before relying on any of this. What homes here cost is on Fleet house prices; the A30 and the town centre roads are covered on Fleet roadworks.