Winchester City Council is sending out 8,400 housing-needs survey questionnaires to randomly selected households across the district to help it develop its future housing and planning policies.

Survey findings will be used to assess the need for affordable housing in different parts of the district and will update information from the last survey in 1999.

Cabinet member for housing, Dominic Hiscock, said: "Information on the needs of particular areas within our district and of key workers, will help us formulate planning and housing policies to aim to meet demand.

"It could also help us to justify planning policies and secure funding to provide affordable housing.

"The more questionnaires that are filled in and sent back, the more accurate and successful our policies will be and the greater the likelihood of the city council gaining grants from central government to carry out housing policies and projects," he said.

The council has appointed independent consultants to carry out the survey and the completed questionnaires will be returned to them and not seen by the council.

Data will only be reported in a generalised statistical format to ensure confidentiality.

For queries about the survey, ring enablement officer, Nigel Baldwin, on 01962-848210.