South Hampshire

He found a region of growing economic importance, in desperate need of proper planning to avoid unplanned sprawl, and suggested the construction of a modernist urban area between Southampton and Portsmouth.

[1] Instead, as a result of high-tech industry and services, the area was able to grow largely without overall planning to become perhaps the most densely populated region of the UK.

Centrally planned building programmes included large estates, connected by new road networks, for commercial and residential use by Hampshire County Council's architects, led by Colin Stansfield Smith.

[8] On 12 November 2013 the government announced the second wave of City Deals, with a successful joint bid of Southampton and Portsmouth providing £953 million of investment into the Solent LEP.

[9] Various attempts at a South Hampshire or Solent City devolution deal have been made, but saw minor local resistance, stemming from the Southampton-Portsmouth rivalry, as well as from the more rural Isle of Wight.

[16] Other parts of the area are in the Test Valley, East Hampshire, City of Winchester and New Forest districts, all of which have lower population densities.