The Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook has written to Stockport Council directing them to revise their Local Development Scheme
The letter states that the Council since withdrawing four years ago from the Greater Manchester Spatial Plan, it has not progressed to a formal consultation on a new plan while In the same period, the rest of Greater Manchester have adopted a joint local plan
The minister states that in December 2024,he requested that all local planning authorities provide an updated timetable for plan preparation.
Stockport Council indicated that they would reach Regulation 18 consultation by May of this year and would submit a local plan before the current system deadline of December 2026.
Following the publication of the revised National Planning Policy Framework, funding was made available to assist Councils to progress local plan preparation and carry out Green Belt reviews, with Stockport Council receiving over £297,000 of MHCLG support.
However, Stockport has subsequently failed to carry out a consultation as you had outlined in their updated Local Development Scheme (‘LDS’).
“This is only the latest of several proposed consultations which your Council has delayed or cancelled over the last two years.”
Stockport Council indicated in July this year that the hope was that the 15-year local plan will be adopted by winter 2027/28 after they had paused plans last year due to what they termed political uncertainty
