Stockport Council delays progress on Local Plan following changes to housing targets

Stockport Council has issued a statement to notify it is delaying progress on its Local Plan again following changes to housing targets recently announced by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, announced on 31st July updated housing targets for local authorities in England as part of a package of planning reforms. Changes have seen annual housebuilding targets in Stockport rise from 1,097 homes to 1,906 homes, and targets have been made statutory once again, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government able to assume control of a local authority’s planning function where necessary to see new homes built.

Prior to the announcement, Stockport Council had published its long-awaited draft Local Plan, which sets out land suitable for new housing and other development in the borough after councillors voted against the Greater Manchester-wide GM Spatial Framework over opposition to Green Belt lost in the borough. Development of a Local Plan was then delayed over uncertainty surrounding the Conservative government’s national planning policies, with publication of the draft plan further set back by the General Election.

Following the updated planning guidelines from the new government, the Chief Executive of the Council in consultation with the Leader of the Council has taken the decision to delay September’s consultation on its draft Local Plan in light of significantly higher annual housing targets for the borough.

The Council’s planning officers will now appraise how new national planning guidelines impact on the current draft Local Plan, as well as publishing an update to the Local Development Framework to put in place a new timetable for bringing a new Local Plan into effect.

Commenting via the Stockport Liberal Democrats website, Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of the Council, said:

“We will continue to work towards delivering a Local Plan which protects the character of the borough and which delivers the right homes in the right places, taking a ‘brownfield first’ approach, using previously developed land, but it seems clear the Government will force us to build on the Green Belt to meet their centrally-imposed housing target. I firmly believe that central government targets, however well intended, should never trump local decision making.”