It is important to track progress with the implementation of planning policies to understand if the policy outcomes are being achieved. Below you can find some of the more recent monitoring data.
Housing land supply in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
The housing land supply report sets out the number of housing completions and commitments for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, covering the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. It also looks to demonstrate the supply of new homes expected to be built over the forthcoming 5 year period of 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030.
Completions
988 homes were built in 2024/25, of which 89 homes are classed as affordable homes. This is the highest single year number of completions since the COVID-19 pandemic but below the average level of completions of 1,080 over the last 10 years. This largely reflects the national picture where high interest rates are causing serious viability issues for developers of previously developed land and high mortgage costs for people buying houses.
Commitments
The below table summarises the commitments in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole as at 1 April 2025. Commitments are homes with planning permission that are either being built (under construction) or not yet being built (not started). There are over 9,000 homes with planning permission but for one reason or another have not yet been built. Of these 1,500 homes are currently under construction.
| Status | 2024/25 |
| Total under construction | 1,578 |
| Total not started | 7,625 |
| Total commitments | 9,203 |
5-year land supply position
We have a 2.55 year housing land supply. As we are currently unable to demonstrate a 5 year supply of housing sites, the presumption of sustainable development applies. This means that when we make decisions on planning applications for new homes we are required to grant approval unless the adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, or there are specific policies such as Green Belt that would protect the area from development.
The 5-year housing land supply position can be seen in the below table. The total supply of new homes is 9,053 homes. This comprises a mixture of commitments we expect to be built within 5 years and other sites that may not yet have planning permission but are in the pipeline and expected to be approved and built within 5 years.
The annual housing target is 2,958 homes per year as set by the government standard methodology. As the number of homes built in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole is well below this target we must add a 20% buffer to the number of homes required in the 5-year period (3,550 homes). To address this housing supply shortage we are updating the Housing Action Plan and are commencing work on a new local plan.
| Supply of homes | Number of homes |
| Total supply of planned homes for 5 years | 9,053 |
| Annual housing requirement with 20% buffer | 3,550 |
| 5 year requirement with 20% buffer | 17,750 |
| Surplus/shortfall over 5 years | 8,697 |
| Number of years supply with buffer | 2.55 |
Infrastructure funding statement
Each year we will produce an Infrastructure Funding Statement to demonstrate how what planning obligations (i.e. Section 106 Agreements) and Community Infrastructure Levy we have secured from developers and how we have spent it on infrastructure. This includes the funds available to local communities through the CIL Neighbourhood portion and how it is being spent.
We have reported on the collection and spend since BCP Council formed in 2019, in the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) from:
Other information
View or download the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) in Bournemouth from 2017 to 2018.