Dear readers — what do you do when you need to build houses on the green belt, but no one wants you to? Simple: you rename it the grey belt.
When Stockport council opted out of Places For Everyone - the GMCA's attempt at making Greater Manchester’s housing needs a ten borough joint effort - they thought they were saving the town's green back garden from the clutches of developers. Now, it's looking like they may have done the opposite.
That's today's story. But first, a word from our sponsor...
TfGM is carrying out major tram improvements
From Monday 19 October to Sunday 1 November:
- No trams will operate on the Eccles, Trafford Centre or Altrincham lines.
- East Didsbury and Manchester Airport trams will terminate at Firswood.
- Rochdale trams will terminate at Exchange Square.
From Monday 2 November to Wednesday 4 November:
- Minor diversions will be made to tram routes within the city centre.
Plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey. Replacement buses serve selected stops only. Bee Network bus or rail may provide a more convenient option. To see how your journey is affected, click below.
Was Stockport’s ‘Stexit’ a terrible idea?
Andy Kitching’s printer is cooling down. His kitchen table has been prepared for my arrival, not with cutlery, but pages and pages of every piece of evidence he can provide that strengthens his argument that the beautiful Hall Moss fields directly behind his Bramhall home should not be built on.
His home in the well-to-do exurbia where Stockport’s post-war semis meet the plains of Cheshire now backs on to a patch recently defined as ‘grey belt’. What’s that? Well, none of us are entirely sure, but we think it means somewhere previously mislabeled as green belt — the strip of rurality surrounding urban areas and protected from the laying of more brick and asphalt. That green field behind Andy’s home is no longer untouchable; it’s prime for development, and development it will get, with a plan for 250 houses moving at pace.
“Can you see any bit of grass that looks grey? Is that grey belt?”
Stockport council is performing worse than any other council in the north west for the percentage of homes delivered against its government-set targets. In other words, it’s not building anywhere near as many homes as are needed to tackle its growing housing needs.
Between 2022 and 2025 Stockport built 43% of the homes the government determined it required. The rest of Greater Manchester is doing much better. Manchester is second to bottom in the GM rankings, but it delivered three quarters of its housing need. Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Wigan, Salford and Tameside all delivered their targets, and then some.
As a consequence, Stockport council is now facing a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ ruling by the government. This means that unless there’s a very strong reason otherwise, the council has to wave through all development.
The fields that split Stockport
Hello! It’s Alec, the writer of this deep dive into Stockport’s most prominent political issue - the fact they aren’t building anywhere near enough homes (and that the ones they are building are set to concrete over some of the borough’s beautiful green belt).
Ultimately, this comes down to a game of political football - but one where the field is about to be ripped up.
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