Cheshire West and Chester Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Martin Loftus (Hartford and Greenbank, Con), has expressed concerns after the Council announced delays to the production of the new Local Plan, which is now unlikely to be complete before the end of 2028.
The Government’s imposition of a new housing target, and Cheshire West and Chester Council’s refusal to write to Government to change it (https://www.cheshirewestconservatives.org.uk/news/conservative-councill…) has had the effect of reducing Cheshire West’s land supply figure beneath the critical 5-year supply needed. As a consequence of the inability to demonstrate adequate land supply, the current Local Plan policies regarded as the most important for determining planning applications are considered out of date and planning permission should now be granted unless the site is in a protected area (this is known as the ‘tilted balance’).
Owing to Cheshire West’s current Local Plan, which ordinarily would have run to 2030, having been fatally undermined, effectively handing control of strategic development decisions to developers, the Council began preparations for a new one last year, with the intent to submit the new plan under the previous process to get it adopted at the earliest opportunity, before the May 2027 council elections.
With a large response on initial consultation, that fundamentally reiterated the aims of local Conservative councillors to revive our towns and protect our villages, the Labour-run Council has not progressed the further stages since the late Summer of 2025. Whilst sitting on this plan, the Government have introduced a new process for submitting new Local Plans. Despite it being possible to submit a revised Local Plan under the previous system until the end of 2026, the Council have decided to effectively start again, creating a nearly 2-year delay.
Responding to the delay of nearly 2 years to the process, Cllr Loftus remarked that:
“Labour’s housing policy has essentially removed the Council’s ability to direct where is to be developed, consequently making it even more difficult to balance development and infrastructure.
“With a greater political will to get the new Local Plan produced, it should have been possible to do so under the existing system and therefore reduce the period within which the developers have the upper hand over our communities. I strongly suspect that the Labour group, not wishing to be seen to be critical of one of their government’s flagship policies, were desperate to avoid this becoming an issue at next year's elections, choosing therefore to ‘kick the can down the road’ to well after the May 2027 elections.
“There can be no doubt though that this decision extends the life of the tilted balance (the presumption in favour of development), meaning that all of our green fields, towns and villages remain exposed to unwarranted development applications.”
Cllr Adrian Waddelove, (Farndon, Con), Conservative Group Leader, whose own ward of Farndon has seen speculative applications amounting to 560 more homes, which would likely have been rejected under the Local Plan policy if the housing supply was met, added that:
“We seem to have sleepwalked into requiring the new Local Plan system by default. The delay until spring 2028 is really bad news for our residents.
“The Council should have put together the new Local Plan under the existing system and be pouring resources into creating it. This delay is only helping developers and their bulldozers and leaves our communities vulnerable to hundreds of more speculative developments over the next 24 months.
“We are committed to getting a new Local Plan approved as the most urgent action of a new administration, as we deliver on our plan to revive our towns and protect our villages. We can only deliver this by winning the support of residents at the ballot box next May to replace Labour’s capitulation to their government and to developers who aim to concrete over our green spaces.”
