Stockport’s Housing Crisis and Labour’s Intervention in the Local Plan
Stockport is a thriving town; it is a great place to live, work, bring up your family and grow old. However, we must urgently address the housing crisis facing our town. Sadly, far too many families are living in insecure, overcrowded accommodation and waiting years for a suitable family home.
Since my election to the House of Commons, I have a record of raising Stockport’s local housing crisis in the House of Commons. Most recently, I raised this issue during Prime Minister’s Questions and the Prime Minister assured me that this Labour Government will deliver 300,000 social and affordable homes - https://shorturl.at/6YyKJ
For too long, Stockport has been held back by our Liberal Democrat led Council’s failure to take difficult but necessary decisions on housing. Frankly, this reluctance serves the party electorally; with many in their voter base being opposed to new developments, the Liberal Democrats know that neglecting Stockport's growing housing needs will protect their voter support. Many people, including myself, feel that new developments are also not distributed fairly across the borough, with tower block after tower block built, often on a “Build to Let” basis, in the town centre in my constituency, resulting in housing being treated as a commodity by an increasing number of private landlords. At the same time, Cheadle and Hazel Grove, served by Liberal Democrat MPs and many Liberal Democrat councillors, are left untouched.
I do welcome new homes in my constituency, but new developments must be fairly distributed across Stockport borough and importantly, they must be affordable long-term. Again, the taxpayer is lining the pockets of too many private landlords via local housing allowance. In addition, I frequently hear from constituents regarding the pressure this puts on our schools, health services and public infrastructure, and a fair and reasonable distribution across Stockport is monumentally important.
This reluctance is why I welcomed the intervention by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning in September 2025 to get Stockport’s long-overdue Local Plan back on track. Action by Labour was unavoidable after years of missed deadlines and political indecision by Stockport Council.
Since Liberal Democrat and Conservative Councillors came together to vote to pull out of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (now named Places For Everyone) in 2020, against the wishes of the then Labour-run Stockport Council, residents were promised a “better local plan”. Instead, we have seen years of delay and uncertainty. The decision by this group of councillors to vote against the plan has significantly worsened the housing crisis in Stockport. More than 9,500 households (that is 9,500 families, not people) are now on Stockport’s social housing waiting list. Families are stuck in temporary or emergency accommodation at huge financial and emotional cost.
The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives voted to sabotage the plan because they prioritised protecting their electoral prospects and shaping development around a particular vision of what they consider to be attractive housing in the borough.
At the same time, housing has become increasingly unaffordable with rents escalating, driven by private landlords and hedge funds. Many of the people I represent do not have the privilege of any private outdoor space to call their own and are pushed into insecurity, anxiety and poor health. Research by Shelter found that 48% of renters have no savings at all and some private renters are spending as much as 63% of their income on rent. These are the realities faced daily by residents who contact my office, and they are why the Council’s inaction could not be allowed to continue. Housing continues to be the top issue when it comes to my correspondence from constituents and for these residents, the urgent need is not aesthetic preference, but access to secure, affordable and safe homes.
That is why ministerial intervention was necessary and why it has made Stockport’s Local Plan stronger, not weaker. With Government direction, Stockport finally has a draft plan that may work towards delivering the homes that Stockport so desperately needs.
Unfortunately, after Labour’s intervention, the two Liberal Democrat MPs within Stockport Borough are now actively campaigning against the Liberal Democrat Stockport Council’s own draft plan. My constituency neighbours in Hazel Grove and Cheadle, Lisa Smart MP and Tom Morrison MP, have made the decision to oppose the plan’s housebuilding proposals outright. I understand why concerns about the green belt resonate with residents and I agree that green spaces matter deeply to our communities and the environment, but opposing the Local Plan in principle, without offering a credible alternative that meets housing needs, is not protecting Stockport.
Every part of Greater Manchester must play its part in tackling the national housing crisis. This Government was elected just 18 months ago on a clear manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million new homes and has backed that up with a record £39 billion investment in social and affordable housing. Stockport should be leading the way in delivering homes that are genuinely affordable, secure and well planned.
The draft Local Plan does exactly what critics claim to want. It prioritises brownfield development, sets a high target for affordable housing, and requires major new communities to include schools, open space and sustainable transport links. Green belt release is limited and targeted only where it is deemed essential to meet evidenced need.
I respect the right of Parliamentary colleagues to campaign and speak out. But shouting “save the Green Belt” while opposing the very plan that allows us to protect it responsibly is not productive. While Cheadle’s Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament believes that any development on the Green Belt is "unnecessary”, I agree with Stockport Labour Group that some Green Belt allocations will be essential for providing family homes with gardens, supporting social rent housing, and meeting the diverse needs of a growing and ageing population. The housing crisis facing our town is real and urgent; it is wrong to suggest that housebuilding is unnecessary.
It is clear that we need more homes to meet demand but these, whether private or socially rented, must be safe and secure. Labour’s Renters’ Rights Act comes into force this year, securing a fairer future for 11 million private renters in England. This Act will rebalance the relationship between England’s 2.3 million landlords and 11 million tenants, ending a system that has left renters vulnerable to unfair treatment and insecurity. Alongside this, over 5 million leaseholders and future homeowners will benefit from stronger control, powers and protections, through Labour’s Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill. This will fundamentally rewire homeownership across England, including by introducing measures to cap ground rents at £250 a year - ending the current feudal leasehold system.
I welcome the work being done by the Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) to transform Stockport town centre, and I am delighted that plans to expand the boundary of regeneration will open the way for 8,000 new homes to be built by 2040. It is vital that delivery of this regeneration focuses on genuinely affordable homes alongside homes for sale and private rent, so that local people are not priced out of the communities they grew up in. However, I am disappointed that Lancashire Hill has been excluded from the recent expansion of the MDC. Data published at the end of 2025 in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation revealed that Lancashire Hill is the most deprived part of Greater Manchester, and I am often contacted by residents about poor conditions in the flats. I want to see Stockport Council making Lancashire Hill a priority for investment.
After years of delay, Stockport’s Local Plan is finally moving forward because the Labour Government stepped in. That intervention has given Stockport the chance to finally meet the housing needs of our borough.
Notes -
The vote against the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework: https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/blow-for-gmsf-as-stockport-quits/
The Renters’ Rights Act: Labour’s Historic Renters’ Rights Act Becomes Law — Navendu Mishra MP
Stockport Labour Group & the Local Plan: https://stockportlabour.org/?page_id=1072
The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill: Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill - GOV.UK
Prime Minister’s Questions (16 July 2025): https://shorturl.at/G5KyD
Lancashire Hill: https://stockport.nub.news/news/local-news/dismay-as-stockport-estate-with-major-deprivation-excluded-from-regeneration-plans-288882