Stockport council told to progress local plan after ‘repeated failure’
Stockport council has been handed a warning by the government over 'repeated failure' to progress its local plan.
A local plan is a document outlining a vision for future development in an area, including building new homes, which is used to make planning decisions.
Stockport council had a draft local plan prepared last year ready to go to a public consultation in September, but the town hall postponed this after the government brought in new mandatory housing targets.
The council is under no overall control but is led by the Lib Dems.
Stockport council last adopted a local plan in 2011. It voted to withdraw from a Greater Manchester-wide development plan in 2020, with some councillors citing concerns about development on the green belt.
The minister of state for housing and planning, Labour MP Matthew Pennycook, has now ordered Stockport council to move its local plan along, threatening 'further action' unless progress is made.
He wrote a letter to council leader Mark Roberts with his concerns.
The secretary of state said in his letter: 'Since 2020, the council has not progressed to a formal consultation on a new plan.
'In the same period, the rest of Greater Manchester has adopted a joint local plan which sets out strategic policies, giving those councils the ability to plan effectively for their areas.'
The letter continued: 'I have been very clear that where councils are failing to progress plans, I will not hesitate to make use of the secretary of state's intervention powers.'
He also accused the council of making 'limited plan preparation progress over the last four years against previous milestones.'
Mr Pennycook ordered Stockport council to carry out an initial consultation on its local plan by December 24, and to have a plan ready for inspection no later than November 30, 2026.
This is similar to the council's own timeline, with a consultation being planned in October this year, and submission scheduled by December 2026.
Mark Roberts, leader of the council, said in response: "The government's intervention into our work on the local plan should ring alarm bells for all those who value the green belt.
"We are committed to building the right homes in the right places through sustainable development.
"Our administration published a draft local plan in 2024 that delivered exactly this across our brownfield sites, before this Labour government then threw the baby out with the bathwater, doubled our housing target and forced us to go back to the drawing board.
"At the same time they removed green belt protections by the back door and tied local councillors hands behind their backs in standing up against the big developers.
"Our officers have been working diligently to deliver a local plan, despite the delays and changes both the Conservative and Labour governments have thrown at us.
"This work will continue, but it is clear that the government has not just moved the goalposts but changed the game entirely.
"Having created a developers' charter it is now forcing its agenda on Stockport to concrete over the green belt, no matter the consequences for our community. Residents should rightly be outraged by the government. I certainly am."
While the work to create a new local plan in Stockport has been taking place, housing has become a major issue for thousands of people in the borough.
There are around 9,000 households on Stockport's social housing register, a figure which could be much higher when accounting for individual people in a household.
Rough sleeping is going up too, with warnings last summer from the council about 'unprecedented' numbers of people presenting as homeless.
Stockport's Labour MP Navendu Mishra welcomed the government's intervention over Stockport council's local plan.
He said: "Stockport is a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family but for far too long, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have dragged their feet, leaving our town without a clear plan for growth and at increased risk of piecemeal and speculative development.
"While I have in recent weeks had the opportunity to visit new housing developments in Stockport – alarmingly there are in excess of 9,500 households on the waiting list for social housing, far too many families are living in emergency or temporary accommodation at huge cost to the local authority."
Conservative councillor Peter Crossen also welcomed the government's intervention.
He said: "This is great news for residents as the longer we are without a local plan, the more our green belt is at risk.
"I have long been pushing the council to publish their plan as a matter of urgency, this intervention makes it clear the consequences of our Liberal Democrat run Council failing to take ownership of our local green spaces."
What the Council said
A Stockport council spokesperson said: "It is not the case that Stockport has failed to make progress on its local plan. We remain fully committed to progressing a new plan for the borough.
"A draft was ready for consultation in spring 2024, but national events outside our control meant this could not proceed. Work is now well underway to deliver the revised timetable we set out in July 2025 at the meeting of our development plan working party."
Cllr Jake Austin, the cabinet member for housing at Stockport council, added: "As Liberal Democrats, our approach on the local plan has always been to deliver a balance of the housing we need in the borough, while protecting the Green Belt sites that our residents deeply care about.
"This government intervention makes it clear that Labour do not care about that balance."
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