Council leaders to protest housing targets as greenbelt homes plan consultation is approved

Council leaders say they are being forced to look at building on greenbelt land due to overwhelming demand set by the Government.

It comes as the draft Black Country Plan was approved for consultation by Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton councils.

The plan, which looks at where new housing and employment land is needed, predicts that Black Country greenbelt will need to make way for more than 7,000 homes over the next decade, with a total of 76,076 homes and 1,396 hectares of land for employment use needed by the year 2039.

Housing targets for the region are set by Government, as are those for other local authorities, leaving councils forced to find space for homes.

Wolverhampton Council leader Ian Brookfield said: "We don't agree with their targets. We feel they have pushed too many onto the Black Country.

"The four Black Country leaders, including the two Conservative leaders in Walsall and Dudley, are meeting with Housing Minister Chris Pincher to say 'we don't agree with your housing targets'.

"We don't agree with their threat that 'if we don't do it, they will do it' [allocate land for homes].

"We are all incensed with what is being pushed for housing numbers on our area.

"Even after we use every single piece of brownfield site, we are still short. We are being told 'if you have done that, look at greenbelt'.

"If we keep to their targets then the greenbelt is in danger."

It is a cross-party issue in the Black Country, with Dudley Council leader Patrick Harley echoing Labour Councillor Brookfield's concerns.

Councillor Harley believes Government methodology for calculating housing targets is "wrong and outdated".

He also said planning policy should be updated which does not require councils to build on greenbelt during housing shortages.

He continued: "If they [the Government] are really serious about not building on greenbelt, put that line in, stating local authorities do not need to have a review of greenbelt boundaries if they have a housing shortfall.

"Do that and everybody is happy. Give us the policy that everybody can work with because at the moment we can't work with this.

"We either have a housing shortfall or build on the greenbelt. If they force us to build on the greenbelt then that is their choosing.

"But I am quite happy to have a housing shortfall in Dudley."

He added: "It is a typical central Government ploy, set a policy then say that we don't need to build on greenbelt. Then when we do, they blame the local authorities.

"It is not our doing, it is theirs."

Speaking at Wolverhampton's cabinet meeting, Councillor Brookfield again decried the targets, describing the authority as the "Government's agent".

"They set the target - but there is a problem when someone else sets the target.

"It is difficult when people stand up before you and say they are absolutely in support of the greenbelt and they will save it at all costs.

"That is in the hands of the Government. If they absolutely meant that, if the Mayor of the West Midlands meant that, if the Prime Minister meant that, then it is in their hands to change their numbers.

"I and the other Black Country leaders will be meeting the Minister for Housing to him exactly that, that it is in their hands to protect the greenbelt.

"We are mandated to look at every piece of land. If we don't do it, the Government will come in. They have told us that. Every authority in the country has been told that."

Issuing a call for resident to have their say, he added: "I need every single person in this city to look at this, to comment.

"You tell us what you want to us to do with it. We will be listening to you and we will fight and support you to keep what type of city you want.

"I will lay one more challenge down and that is to the Mayor of the West Midlands, to local MPs and Government ministers, who will quite happily say on television 'you should use brownfield first before greenbelt'.

"We have. We have done that. So what next? What next to fill that target?

"If they can go away and over the next couple of years convince themselves, and the Government, to re-look at those figures, then we would have a totally different proposition before you."

In Sandwell, the council's economy boss Councillor Iqbal Padda said "difficult decisions" lay ahead in choosing what sites are developed.

A question was also made by Councillor Anne Shackleton, who queried whether developers who hold onto land for long periods of time could face sanctions.

But Councillor Padda said there were "no powers to force land owners to bring sites into use".

Speaking about the Black Country Plan, he added: "The final plan will inevitably involve making some difficult decisions about the allocation of sites.

"The boundaries of the greenbelt and protection of open space is not just in Sandwell but across the Black Country."

Walsall Council's cabinet agreed to send the document out for consultation, but members expressed opposition to developing on greenbelt land. They reiterated their support for a brownfield first policy.