Green Councillors are welcoming a new report to take the new Sheffield Local Plan through its final stages. The report has been published as part of the agenda for the council’s Strategy & Resources meeting on 30 April 2025.
Councillor Douglas Johnson said
“A new local plan is critical for Sheffield and will govern every planning application for the next 15 years and beyond. Without an up-to-date local plan, poor quality property development often can’t be stopped. A new local plan will set standards to improve the quality of new places for people, not maximum profits for developers.
“Sheffield’s current local plan is extremely out of date and is made up of documents produced in 1998 and 2009. This leaves lots of loopholes open for developers to exploit. The Labour-controlled administration failed to review it and a breakthrough was only made when the council moved to No Overall Control in 2021.
“Without a new local plan, ultimately the Government could step in and set its own plan, which would be much worse for the city.
“As Greens, we oppose most building in the Green Belt. We will support this report because of the need to get the local plan approved. The government’s Planning Inspectorate has been clear that new house-building targets mean new sites must be released in the Green Belt. If the local plan were rejected, it would lead to even more building in the Green Belt.
“I would also like to thank everyone who has worked hard and constructively to find a solution to the really difficult challenge of a credible local plan. It is a massive piece of work and needs political responsibility to get it over the line.”
Cllr Angela Argenzio added,
“What is really frustrating is that there are over a million homes with planning permission across the country that developers have not built. A large proportion of the 1.5 million homes target for this parliament could be met by simply building on land that they already have permission to develop. No additional land would be needed. The real blockers of new housing are the land-owners and developers, not the planners.
“Without a local plan, saying where houses can be built, developers have free rein to submit planning applications to build on any land and the Council would have few grounds to reject these applications.
