ANOTHER councillor has expressed his concern about the possibility that households in Basingstoke could face water rationing if over 17,000 new homes are built in the borough.

Government calculations suggest as many as 17,820 new homes need to be built in Basingstoke and Deane by the end of 2039 and council documents reveal that Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) needs to build 7,703 houses more than they currently have in the pipeline.

It's part of the update process of a document called the local plan, which sets the rules surrounding the development of the borough and can be used by developers as a blueprint on where and how to build houses.

During an economic, planning, and housing committee meeting held on Monday, July 18 it was brought to light that residents' water supply would have to be "rationed" if plans go ahead.

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At the meeting councillors discussed the water cycle study, which has been developed to provide evidence to ensure that the scale and location of the development proposed can be met without impacting on the water environment. 

Since then the leader of the Basingstoke and Deane Labour group Cllr Andrew McCormick has spoken to the Gazette to express his concerns about the report.

He said: “I am concerned as we have had some hot weather and with the changing climate that is more and more likely to happen more often.

“There is an increasing demand for water which leads us to question whether with this demand we should be building more houses and we need answers on this.

“If we really want to build more houses, we must ensure we have enough water.”

As previously reported, leader of the Basingstoke and Deane Independents Cllr Paul Harvey shares similar views.

READ MORE: Council responds to plans for 'significant new employment development'

He said previously: "The impact of building more houses, as planned by the council will mean every household in Basingstoke faces water rationing at a rate nowhere else in country or in Europe does at the moment, if they plan the impact of all those thousands of houses to be water neutral. If it isn't water neutral we risk more pollution, more damage to our environment.”

If plans go ahead half of all existing homes in Basingstoke and Deane would have to be retrofitted to use recycled water. 

Retrofitting is the act of fitting new systems designed for high energy efficiency and low energy consumption to buildings previously built without them.

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