Stockport Council publishes draft Local Plan “with a heavy heart”

Stockport Council has published its draft Local Plan for the borough, which sets out potential development sites for new homes to meet Stockport’s housing needs through to the 2040s.

The council’s Cabinet will meet on 27 October 2025 to decide whether to start a public consultation on the Local Plan, with the consultation timetabled to take place from 6 November to 21 December 2025.

In his foreword to the draft Local Plan, Leader of Stockport Council, Cllr Mark Roberts, expressed his disappointment that the council had needed to release Green Belt sites under the government’s updated planning rules. He wrote:

“It is with a very heavy heart that I write this introduction to the third version of a draft Local Plan.

“Legally we have had to accept the government’s mandate and authority to direct us to deliver a part of the national housing target it has set, requiring the delivery of almost twice as many homes within Stockport. This has forced us to release Green Belt sites using the Government’s new methodology. We have engaged with this process positively as we are legally obliged to, despite disagreeing about the scale and location of developments, despite disagreeing with the Government’s removal of protections to large swathes of the Green Belt, and despite our frustration at being unable to deliver on the true Brownfield First approach we had already prepared.

“The allocation of sites in the Green Belt will undoubtedly dominate the commentary about this draft Local Plan. I undoubtedly share many residents’ concerns about the impact this will have on our borough. It is a shame that this will obscure the many years of work by councillors and officers on the other positive policies this plan contains which are needed for Stockport to have a strong and positive future.”

The 219-page document sets out how the borough will meet its annual housing target of 1,906 new homes and criteria for making planning decisions. The plan proposes a mix of brownfield development (in addition to Stockport town centre where an expanded Mayoral Development Corporation is expected to deliver around 8,000 properties) and reallocation of a number of Green Belt sites around the edges of the borough for housing, the majority of which have been redesignated as ‘grey belt’ or ‘partial grey belt’ sites under new government planning guidance. In total, the plan identifies land for the development of 16,400 new homes across the borough.

In addition to new homes, the Local Plan also identifies two sites for development of commercial properties, at Bredbury Gateway and Heathside Park Road off Junctions 25 and 2 of the M60 respectively that could add up to 107,000 sqm of commercial space. The plan also highlights a need to improve the quality of commercial property available in the borough, with only 12% of current office space being Grade A or B in order for Stockport to remain competitive in attracting businesses to the town.

Stockport has been without a Local Plan since 2021, when the borough pulled out from the Greater Manchester-wide Places for Everyone scheme, citing the loss of local control over development and potential loss of Green Belt. A previous draft Local Plan had been published in summer 2024, which avoided any Green Belt development; however, this was withdrawn after new housing targets for Stockport were set by the then-Housing Minister, Angela Rayner.

Stockport’s draft Local Plan is available in full here, with a list of sites allocated for residential development from page 110, alongside a map here.