Councils told to 'get control' to stop green belt development

Chris Pincher said the housing need in some parts of the country may be inaccurate due to councils basing it on out-of-date projections.

It comes as opposition to housing plans in the Black Country and South Staffordshire continues to grow, with residents opposing schemes for thousands of homes on green belt land.

Mr Pincher spoke to the Express & Star during a visit to the Department for Levelling Up's new headquarters in Wolverhampton.

He said the Government had "made it clear" that councils needed to be "ambitious" and build enough homes "in the right places" to cater for local populations.

"The problem is when local authorities don't accurately plan, so plans for housing become out of date," he said.

Mr Pincher said councils that failed to "get control" of their housing supplies were likely to be at the mercy of developers of rejected schemes lodging successful appeals to the Planning Inspectorate.

"In order for local councils to protect their communities and provide for them the housing numbers they agree they need, the local plan needs to be appropriate and in place," he added.

Mr Pincher also called for a "consistent approach" to identifying brownfield sites across the country to ensure that as many of them as possible are in local plans.

"As a Government, we are putting money where our mouth is and making sure that brownfield comes first," he said.

"But more can be done and we have got to work with local authorities to make sure they are maximising brownfield sites, through identification in the the first place, and then allocation, by getting those sites put forward for development.

"We've got a lot of tools to help councils, but fundamentally it is up to them to come forward with good brownfield site propositions."

During his visit, Tamworth MP Mr Pincher also went to Longbridge in Birmingham, where he was shown around the largest brownfield regeneration scheme in Europe where around 4,000 homes are being built.