Court case leaves future of huge 15-year housing plan in the balance

A court case means the future of Andy Burnham’s enormous, 15-year housing plan hangs in the balance.

The Places for Everyone (PfE) plan is a blueprint for development across nine Greater Manchester boroughs which was adopted by every council except Stockport this year.

It paves the way for tens of thousands of new homes to be built using a ‘brownfield land first’ approach, but some will go on the green belt.

But campaigners have railed against the plan, which was first dreamt up in 2014. A group called ‘Save Greater Manchester Green Belt Ltd’ has launched a judicial review, which was heard in court on Thursday afternoon (12 December).

The group is challenging a 2024 ruling by the government’s planning inspectorate to allow the plan to go ahead, with some modifications. It believes inspectors did not adequately take into account Rishi Sunak’s decision to cancel the Manchester leg of HS2, and how the lack of a high-speed rail line impacts PfE.

“We say there is an unequivocal promise that all main modifications are subject to public consultation, and the inspectors will not issue his report until that consultation,” Jenny Wigley KC, the campaigners’ lawyer, argued in court on Thursday.

“The inspectors do not give the public a chance to comment on the extent of how HS2’s withdrawal affects PfE. It’s a very cursory look at the issue with no in-depth analysis. It’s at very least arguable there was a failure to follow guidance without good reason.”

The group has also taken issue with how housing targets should have been interpreted for the end of the plan’s 15-year lifespan in the late 2030s, and if the process of drawing up PfE should have restarted after Stockport voted to withdraw in late 2020.

It also contests the status of land called the Timperley Wedge, which was taken out of the green belt to ‘capitalise on HS2’, according to Ms Wigley.

The case is being contested by the nine councils which have signed up to PfE; the mayor’s office, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the government department which oversaw the planning inspection, which was then called the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities – but is now called the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

Chris Katkowski, representing the defendants, told Mr Justice Fordham the plan was ‘not based on HS2’. He said: “The assertion was the removal of HS2 ‘was a fundamental change in circumstance’. It’s not… The plan is not based on HS2.”

Arguments were made in courtroom 45 at Manchester Civil Justice Centre after the campaigners appealed to have four grounds contested in a judicial review. The renewal hearing, as it is known, concluded on Thursday without a formal decision from Mr Justice Fordham but this will be delivered in writing in due course.

The wait means the future of PfE is uncertain, as it could go to a full judicial review, which could result in the plan being quashed.

Ethan Davies, Local Democracy Reporter