Stockport moves forward with draft Local Plan

The Local Plan is a legally required document that sets out how guidance for the planning officers and councillors of how land in the borough can be developed to meet local housing targets as well as delineating areas to be preserved, such as green spaces and the Green Belt.

Following the borough’s withdrawal from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (now known as Places for Everyone), which sought to centralise planning policies from across the city-region, Stockport has needed to prepare its own up-to-date Local Plan, however, Stockport Council has opted to delay the plan over uncertainty around national planning policies under the previous Conservative government, as well as more recently due to the announcement of the General Election.

A new draft Local Plan has now been published and councillors on the borough’s Economy, Regeneration & Climate Change Scrutiny Committee are expected to vote to recommend its policies and progress the document to a public consultation in September 2024.

The draft plan sets out a brownfield-first approach to new development in the borough, which will see previously developed sites prioritised for housebuilding, with the Local Plan estimating this can deliver the majority of the borough’s housing target of 15,761 during the expected lifetime of the plan.

In his foreword to the draft Local Plan, Council leader Cllr Mark Hunter wrote:

“Stockport Council has big ambitions for our Borough and our people, and we always put residents at the heart of what we do. I am proud that Stockport is a place where we all work together to make good things happen.

“We have a proven track record of making positive change. Our town centre is just one example, bucking trends and pioneering town centre living by breathing life into the heart of the town without overdeveloping it.

“The Stockport Local Plan aims to build on this, taking this transformational regeneration of our town centre to the next level and bringing the same careful expansion across our whole borough, with our district centres sitting at the heart of the plan.

“More importantly, this Local Plan is for Stockport. It is a guide to what will be built, where it will be built and how it will be built, allowing us to direct new development to areas we want to be developed. It also provides a guide to what Stockport expects from new development.

“Our plan is about delivering the right homes in the right places whilst protecting our Green Belt. We will do this by continuing our brownfield-first approach, using previously developed land. We will build the vital new homes that are needed on land that has previously been developed rather than our valuable Green Belt, which we will continue to protect.”

A public consultation is timetabled to take place in September-October 2024. The document is anticipated to be adopted in mid-2026 after a second round of consultation and any amendments necessary in 2025.