MORE than 700 homes could be built on land opposite Basingstoke Golf Club, if councillors agree changes to the borough’s draft Local Plan next week.

As previously reported in The Gazette, planning inspector Mike Fox, who will approve the housing blueprint, advised the borough council to adopt a yearly figure of around 850 new homes, rather than the 748 previously agreed by the borough council.

In January, the council’s Cabinet agreed on 853 homes per year as the figure for the Local Plan.

This means the council will now need to build an extra 1,836 homes between now and 2029.

Councillors on the borough’s economic, planning housing committee will be asked to consider a recommendation on how to make up this additional number at a meeting next Wednesday.

A report to the committee recommends that land known as Hounsome Fields, on the A30 near Dummer, is included in the Local Plan to provide 750 homes.

The committee will also be asked to include an extra 150 homes in urban and brownfield development sites and a number of contingency homes, which will then reduce the remaining contingency figure to 227.

Following discussions with the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, councillors will be asked to support an increased employment figure, which will see the number of jobs expected to be created in the borough range between 450 and 700.

Cabinet member for planning and infrastructure, Councillor Mark Ruffell, told The Gazette: “The good news is that the plan is still on track and within the timescales set for when the inspection takes place in autumn. I am hoping for useful and constructive dialogue at the meetings which start next week.”

If the changes are approved by councillors at a full council meeting on March 26, a public consultation will be held in May or June and the Local Plan will be formally submitted later this year, in either October or November.