Housing plan could see 10,000 homes built on Green Belt

The city council would need sites to help meet government housing targets

- Phil Corrigan

MORE than 10,000 homes could be built on Green Belt land under Stoke-on-Trent’s new planning blueprint.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s draft local plan earmarks sites where up to 18,528 homes could be built over the next decade and a half.

While dozens of brownfield sites are included, up to 10,499 homes - more than half the total - have been allocated to ‘broad locations’ which are mostly part of the current Green Belt. These locations include most of the fields between Lightwood Road and Cocknage Road in Lightwood, where 3,000 homes could be built, and two sites at Norton Green, earmarked for up to 3,097 homes.

Council leaders say that releasing some land from the Green Belt is necessary in order to meet Stoke-on-Trent's housing targets. The government has told Stoke-on-Trent to build 948 homes a year - twice the city’s house-building rate over the last few years.

Stoke-on-Trent’s local plan will guide all development in the city, including employment sites as well as housing, up to the year 2040. Members of the public will be able to have their say on the draft plan during a six-week consultation, due to start in September.