Pledge to protect the green belt
STOCKPORT’S green belt will be protected as the borough’s transformation continues, town hall bosses have promised.
Dozens of developments are ongoing across the town, which will add around 4,000 new homes in the coming years built on brownfield sites.
Stockport left a Greater Manchesterwide housing plan, then called the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework, in December 2020 due to fears that it would turn too much green belt land into building sites.
The scheme, which is now called Places for Everyone, aims to create new jobs and homes around the city region, with the nine other districts of Greater Manchester all signed up.
Stockport council has announced that it is creating its own local plan for housing which is due to be published next year.
Councillors from different political groups met this week to thrash out the details of the plan, which will decide where new homes could be built in future.
The move to create a Stockport housing plan has been delayed several times since 2022, while the council waited for an update to national planning laws from the government which was finally published at the end of last year.
But during a meeting this week about the local plan, Stockport’s opposition councillors said it was concerning that the local authority was leaning so heavily on the town centre for new homes.
Councillor Colin MacAlister, who’s responsible for housing in Stockport, said: “The new rules mean we can have a plan which does not build houses within the green belt to reach our housing need figure.
“We will protect the green belt and there will be no release of land within the green belt which will have house building on it.”
Coun Asa Caton, of the Edgeley Community Association, said: “The strategy seems to be just build everything as tall as possible in the centre of Stockport and hope that meets the demand.
“But let’s be honest, there’s demand across the borough, it can’t just be in the centre of Stockport.”
Council leader Mark Hunter said he ‘completely rejects’ claims that the local authority is only building high rise flats in Stockport town centre.
He pointed out that developments are taking place around Stockport in Cheadle Hulme and Heald Green.
Mr Hunter added: “It is a caricature to pretend that we only have a strategy for development in the town centre.”
Stockport Labour leader, Coun David Meller, said: “From my perspective, it is looking at where we are with land supply versus what we can deliver, and ultimately how many [housing] units are we looking at just going with a brownfield first approach?
“It may be a good compromise in looking at sites that are within the green belt that have already been developed, and whether that is an opportunity to deliver the additional housing that we need.”
Stockport’s regeneration includes building new apartments around the transport interchange which is due to open in March, as well as putting new homes in restored historic sites such as Weir Mill.
But the borough is facing an urgent problem with social housing, with demand for these types of properties remaining high in the town.
Mr MacAlister added: “A local plan will not address the lack of social housing, that can only be resolved by government willingness to legislate and finance the myriad of issues that’s stopping this.”
It could take until summer 2026 before Stockport’s new housing plan is finally adopted according to the council’s new timeline.