Planning law changes could see council ‘pressured’ into building on Sandwell border
The Government’s loosening of planning laws could see Sandwell Council ‘pressured’ into building on the borough’s greener border.
Sandwell Council will be expected to support new housing developments on the so-called ‘grey belt’ under proposals by the Labour Government aimed at building more homes.
The Government’s proposed changes to loosen planning laws, which it said would fast-track major developments in a bid to build 1.5 million new homes, include plans that would force councils to prioritise building on brownfield sites and ‘poor-quality’ areas within the green belt, dubbed the ‘grey’ belt.
Councillor Peter Hughes, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and infrastructure, told a scrutiny meeting the government’s proposals “might have some impact” – particularly over building on the borough’s ‘green belt’ land.
“We have got various green belt-type of land to the peripheries of our borough which we might have some pressure put on us to actually look at developing,” he said at the meeting on October 28.
“Things will start to change and move.”
Sandwell’s Local Plan, which sets out where thousands of new homes are expected to be built until 2041, is expected to finally be adopted next year after years of delays following the collapse of the collaborative Black Country Plan in 2022.
The Labour-run authority said housing targets were “not expected to change much” under the national government’s proposals with the number of extra homes expected to be built increasing by the hundreds rather than thousands.
Government formulas say that land needs to be provided in Sandwell for more than 26,000 new homes by 2041 – meaning the council is already 15,000 homes short regardless of what plans are adopted.
Councillor Vicki Smith, cabinet member for housing, told the scrutiny committee: “The number of homes that we have the land to build in Sandwell will not change significantly.”
“It’s just under 11,500 [homes] in the current local plan and it increases by a few hundred, I’ve been advised, under the new planning criteria.”
The formerly council-owned Brandhall Golf Course in Oldbury, near the borough’s border, will be the site of 190 new homes, a new primary school and public park after plans were controversially backed by Sandwell Council in 2024.
The council recently added Tippity Green Golf Club in Rowley Regis to its list of development sites for up to 175 new homes.
