Stockport delays 18,600-home strategy 

The council has postponed a public consultation on its draft local plan “in the face of turbulence at a national government level”. 

The consultation had been due to begin at the end of September and run for 10 weeks. Stockport Council has not given a revised date for when the consultation will take place. 

“Unfortunately, with a new Prime Minister due to be announced next week – followed by the formation of a new government and no clarity about their intentions around planning matters – we have taken the difficult decision that this is not the time to launch such a consultation,” said Cllr Mark Hunter, leader of the Stockport Council and the borough’s Liberal Democrats. 

Hunter said the council was concerned that the £200,000 public consultation “could be rendered void by any changes to planning policy”. 

“At this time of great financial constraint, we feel the uncertainties are too great for this to be a sensible use of public funds and we are instead pausing this process whilst awaiting clarity from the new government. We will review the process in due course.” 

Once adopted, Stockport Council’s local plan will set out where the 18,600 homes the government requires the authority to deliver between 2023 and 2038 can be built. 

The pressure on Stockport to adopt a fresh local plan was ratcheted up when the authority pulled out of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework – the joint plan for all 10 GM boroughs now known as Places for Everyone – in 2020 due to concerns about Green Belt release. 

The Labour-led administration at that time was in favour of being part of the GMSF and it was pressure from the Lib Dems and Conservatives that forced the authority to withdraw from the joint plan. 

The council has warned that the failure to form a local plan would put the council under “significant pressure to allow the development of greenfield sites in sub-optimal locations and the potential situation of ‘planning by appeal’”. 

The council’s dedicated local plan webpage states that “without a plan, it would also be much harder to deliver all the new infrastructure Stockport needs. There would also be a lack of certainty for both the public and private sectors which could undermine investor confidence in Stockport.”