Walsall to stand up against neighbouring councils trying to offload housing targets - here's how

The comments from Walsall Council Planning Committee were heard in response to Wolverhampton City Council’s Local Plan which proposes to meet only 48 percent of the 19,548 houses needed to reach its target.

Councils across the Black Country have shared land responsibility and are bound by a legal ‘duty to cooperate’. If one council doesn’t allocate enough land in its plan, the others will need to make up the difference and may even have to use Green Belt.

The targets follow an announcement in December where housing secretary Angela Rayner released the government’s plans to ‘turbocharge’ growth by building 370,000 homes each year. But members of Walsall Council’s planning committee on January 16, 2025, said they must not be bullied into accepting more than their fair share.

Chairman councillor Mike Bird said: “It’s a government directive now and the government targets are mandatory. I go back to when we first started the Black Country Plan some three years ago now. In Walsall we put forward 200 sites for consideration, and Dudley had got about six and Wolverhampton had got about five. All of a sudden, I said ‘Are we on the same bloody playing field here? I don’t think we are’.

“Now we’re seeing similar moves in Wolverhampton. If we don’t stamp our feet and show where we stand in relation to the housing requirement, then effectively we will be forced to accept some housing that we don’t require.”

The Black Country Plan was a joint effort between Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell to allocate land to meet the housing target of 76,000 homes in the region. The scheme was due to run until 2039 but fell through in 2022 when Dudley Council withdrew from the plan.

Councillor Bobby Bains said: “As elected members of Walsall, we have to think what’s right for Walsall. We’ve got so many of these plans, Cannock Chase tax, the Black Country Plan, we’re getting pushed from pillar to post. What we require is leadership in Walsall, with a back bone, to say we will do things our way. Whatever is legally required of us to do, we will do, but it seems to me that we’re getting other councils dictating what Walsall should do.”

Councillor Aftab Nawaz shared a similar sentiment: “We should be on the front foot on this, rather than being the poor relative and receiving everything they want. Why should they be developing on our Green Belt when they can’t be bothered to develop on their own?

“For them to not even put any of their Green Belt forward, and expect Walsall to use theirs, they’re taking the mick. Perhaps we should summon the chief executive of Wolverhampton City Council to come and sit in front of us and tell us why he’s got officers who are trying to use our Green Belt land.”

Deputy leader Mark Statham added: “To put a plan forward that suggests they are only going to build 48 percent of the recognised demand is risible.”

Members approved to send a firm but diplomatic letter to Wolverhampton City Council outlining the authority’s expectations.