Policy and Strategy

Economic development, skills, housing and many other issues cut across local authority boundaries, so it makes sense to address them in partnership across South Hampshire. By doing that, we will help maximise economic growth, bring about a renaissance of Portsmouth, Southampton and other urban areas, and ensure affordable family homes and good quality jobs for all.

To help achieve that outcome, PUSH has two overarching strategies – an Economic Development Strategy and a spatial strategy called the ‘South Hampshire Strategy’. Both strategies seek a step change in South Hampshire’s economic growth in a managed, sustainable way, with the growth shared by all communities. These strategies guide PUSH’s actions and decisions, and also aim to influence the decision-making of PUSH authorities and other bodies.

The Economic Development Strategy sets out the context for economic growth and specifies the priority actions. This is to lay the foundations of the transformational change necessary over the period to 2026, to be implemented by PUSH and its partners so as to achieve a brighter economic future for South Hampshire. The strategy and its evidence base were updated during 2009/10 by DTZ and Oxford Economics (OE) and following a two month consultation, the updated Economic Development Strategy was approved by the PUSH Joint Committee in November 2010.

The South Hampshire Strategy translates the key elements of the Economic Development Strategy into a spatial strategy, and also covers other topics such as culture and environmental sustainability. It is not a statutory plan; rather it provides a framework to inform and support the preparation of statutory local plans and the future review/roll forward of those which are already adopted. The document focuses on issues which require a strategic approach or for which the PUSH authorities wish to have common policy/standards.

These are complemented by various topic-specific PUSH strategies and policy documents:-

Sub-Regional Housing Strategy PDF 749Kb