Local plan formally adopted despite ‘crying shame’

Dudley Council has formally adopted its new local plan despite the ‘crying shame’ of housing targets making it instantly out of date.

Councillors at a meeting of the authority on July 13 voted unanimously to accept the plan which will guide where new building takes place in the borough until 2041.

The plan, which protects borough green belt from development, was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination in February 2025 and approved after a public examination.

Changes to government housing targets introduced by Labour after their general election, which more than doubled the number of new homes the council is expected to build, mean work on a new plan must begin immediately.

Cllr Ed Lawrence, who represents Kingswinford and Wall Heath where two green belt sites are under threat of possible development, said: “The fact we are passing this local plan is a great relief to myself, to my residents and those who have campaigned so hard for many years to make sure these are not given away to developers.

“The battle is won but the war rages on, we know that immediately we have to start a new local plan based on the new government’s ridiculous housing figures for Dudley.”

The government expects Dudley to deliver 1,514 new homes each year which concerned the borough’s Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Ryan Priest.

Cllr Priest said: “I support this local plan, it’s a crying shame because of the change of housing target it can only be temporary.”

Despite his support for the plan, Cllr Priest had some reservations including its lack of provision for land to be developed for employment.

He added: “It’s the height of apathy that this borough, which was once the beating heart of the industrial revolution, is now just shipping jobs out to Birmingham and beyond.

“It abandons the industrial manufacturing heritage of the Black Country and once that employment land is lost it is unlikely to ever come back.”

Dudley Council leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, said: “When it comes to employment land we are woefully short but then every authority in the West Midlands is so that is going to be a difficult one to solve.

“The more employment land we move on to housing, or we don’t, then the threat of developing green spaces or green belt becomes more prominent.”

Dudley Council’s cabinet member for economy and infrastructure, Cllr Simon Phipps, told the meeting changes in legislation, withdrawal from the Black Country Plan and the battle to keep green belt out of the plan meant he did not think any other authority had prepared their plan in similar circumstances.

Cllr Phipps added: “Those housing targets are impossible to deliver, the coming changes to planning regulations will take all of the power away from local authorities and hand it to unelected officials.”

Reform UK also backed the local plan, the party’s deputy leader in Dudley, Cllr Shaun Keasey, said: “It is so important that local people and local groups have their voices heard because they are the people that live in the areas that could potentially be lost forever.”