High Court challenge to region's housing plan

A 15-year housing blueprint for Greater Manchester will go to the High Court after a judge ruled to allow a legal challenge by campaigners.

Andy Burnham's Places for Everyone (PfE) plan was approved by nine of the region's councils earlier this year and sets out land for 115,000 new homes.

But campaigners from Save Greater Manchester Green Belt Ltd have launched a judicial review to try and halt the controversial proposal, which has been in development since 2014.

Mr Justice Fordham has ruled its case can proceed to the High Court.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the nine councils signed up to the plan will continue to defend it, a GMCA spokesperson said.

"Unless the High Court decides otherwise, all policies within PFE including those relating to green belt additions, remain valid and will continue to be used to determine planning applications," they added.

The 15-year development plan has been overseen by the GMCA — which Mr Burnham heads as the region's mayor.

It was initially set to include every Greater Manchester council, but Stockport voted to withdraw in late 2020.

The blueprint paves the way for tens of thousands of new houses to be built using a "brownfield land first" approach, but some will go on green belt land.

It has been put forward to build "the new homes that our communities need", the GMCA spokesperson said.

Campaigners appealed for a review on five grounds earlier this year, but a hearing last week effectively decided only one of those grounds for appeal, based on "green belt additions" to the PfE scheme, was acceptable.

"We did everything possible to challenge the inclusion of green belt allocations in this plan," the campaign group said.

"It was unnecessary, inappropriate and is a complete betrayal of future generations, given the impact on land that should be supporting climate mitigation, nature's recovery and future food security."

The judge's decision means the GMCA, nine councils, and the government's planning inspectorate, which approved the scheme with modifications, now face a High Court battle.

The most extreme option open to the court is quashing PfE.