My Statement on the Publication of the Stockport Local Plan & my Submission to the Regulation 19 Consultation

The publication of Stockport’s Local Plan is a significant milestone, and after years of delay, I welcome the fact that the process is finally moving forward.

However, this should have happened much sooner.

Since 2011, Stockport has been without an up-to-date, adopted Local Plan. Since Liberal Democrat and Conservative Councillors voted to withdraw from the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (now Places for Everyone) in 2020, residents have seen repeated delays while housing need has continued to grow. Almost 10,000 households in Stockport are currently waiting for social housing, while rising rents in the private rental sector and house prices are making it increasingly difficult for local people to find a secure and affordable home. Every week, I hear from several constituents about issues with the availability of housing in our town.

I have consistently called for Stockport to have an adopted Local Plan, and I welcome the intervention by the Labour Government after Stockport Council missed successive deadlines. That intervention has helped get the process back on track. Liberal Democrat leaders at Stockport Council have described progressing the Local Plan "reluctantly", strangely, openly admitting that they do not support their own Plan. The reality is that Stockport simply cannot afford any more delay and the new homes set out in the Plan are absolutely necessary in the face of our town's housing crisis.

It is now for the Council, elected representatives, residents and other stakeholders to work constructively to ensure the Plan is robust and delivers for Stockport. The publication of the plan is not the end of the process. It is the beginning of an important period of scrutiny and consultation.

I will be looking particularly closely at what the Plan means for people in my constituency and across the borough. We need to see genuinely affordable and social housing, not simply an increase in the number of properties being built. We need family homes as well as homes suitable for older people and young people, and we need development to be accompanied by the schools, GP services, dentists, transport, roads, green spaces and other infrastructure that growing communities require. The Plan will enable the delivery of 24,253 homes – well short of the 32,317 identified as Stockport's overall housing need.

The regeneration of our town centre demonstrates what can be achieved when development is properly planned, and the expansion of town-centre regeneration provides an important opportunity to deliver thousands of new homes. But we must ensure that these are homes that local people can actually afford and that growth benefits existing communities as well as new residents. The benefits of regeneration should go to the people of Stockport, not property developers and/or speculators.

I also understand why residents are concerned about proposals involving the Green Belt and other valued green spaces. These concerns should be listened to seriously. The answer, however, cannot simply be to oppose housing in principle when there is clear housing need.

The Local Plan has to strike the right balance between protecting our environment and providing the homes that people need. Any proposed Green Belt release must be evidence-based, carefully considered and accompanied by the infrastructure necessary to make new communities work.

There also needs to be a fairer distribution of development across the borough. It cannot be right for some communities to experience significant levels of development while other areas consistently resist contributing to meeting Stockport’s housing needs. The Local Plan is an opportunity not only to recognise but also to respond to the significant inequalities that exist across Stockport borough. In some communities, the impacts of overdevelopment are felt more acutely, while health outcomes, life expectancy and levels of deprivation vary considerably between neighbourhoods. Housing delivery through a strong Local Plan should therefore be progressed in a way that helps reduce these disparities, ensuring that new development contributes to healthier, more balanced and sustainable communities rather than reinforcing existing inequalities.

The Government has made increasing housing supply, including social and affordable housing, a national priority. Stockport must play its part, and it must do so in a way that delivers good-quality homes, sustainable communities and the infrastructure to support them.

After years of delay, residents deserve certainty and progress. I will therefore continue to scrutinise the Local Plan closely, listen to residents and work to ensure that the final Plan delivers the homes Stockport needs while protecting what makes our communities special.

Please see my submission to the Regulation 19 Consultation below: