Housing: North Staffordshire

Allison Gardner Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

I will call Dr Allison Gardner to move the motion and then I will call the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they can make a speech only with prior permission from both the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister. There will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up, as is the convention for 30-minute debates.

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered housing developments in north Staffordshire.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey, and I thank the House for allowing this debate today.

With the publication of three draft local plans across my constituency, this is an incredibly timely debate. Too many of my constituents know the struggle of finding suitable affordable housing. Families need high-quality homes in which to raise their children, young people starting out need affordable homes, and many people need accessible bungalows. I understand our Government’s targets for house building and the three draft local plans for my constituency deliver on that commitment. My constituents deserve to have a home to call their own and I back every effort to support local people into good homes.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I spoke to the hon. Lady beforehand and I congratulate her on securing this debate. Does she agree that housing for over-55s, with smaller units, must also be a priority, in order to free up larger homes for younger families, and that every local authority should consider the inclusion of such units when housing developments are being built?

[Dr Gardner]

I agree with the hon. Member: we are an ageing population and need to think about how we house our older residents. I am a big advocate of bungalows, having just moved into one.

That is not to say that proposals for new housing developments come without challenges. In Barlaston, the local community are trying to resist a planning application on green-belt land off Barlaston Old Road. The local parish council has proactively produced its own neighbourhood plan and is not against developments. It is offering suitable alternatives that will deliver more housing and address local issues regarding abandoned land. I hope that Stafford borough council engages meaningfully with the parish council and works to protect the integrity of the village while supporting new housing. Does the Minister agree that parish councils have a strong role to play in planning—indeed, increasingly so, as we proceed with devolution? The local voice must be empowered and heard.

Similarly, my constituents in Lightwood are concerned about the draft proposal to build up to 3,000 new homes in a neighbouring valley. A development of such size would create a whole new electoral ward. Although this proposal is in the very early stages of the local plan, should it proceed, it would have a significant impact on the surrounding communities. Residents are rightly worried about the scale of the development, the loss of green space and the strain on local infrastructure.

[Leigh Ingham (Stafford) (Lab)]

It cannot be denied that we are in the worst housing crisis since world war two. I thank the Minister for his engagement; we have previously discussed this issue in relation to my constituency of Stafford, Eccleshall and the villages. We need housing, but the village of Loggerheads, right in the north of my constituency, has been left in chaos due to large-scale housing developments that were allowed under previous Administrations, but put forward and built without the proper supporting infrastructure. Does my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour agree that while we desperately need housing—particularly bungalows—it cannot be delivered in the Conservative way, where there are houses but no infrastructure, and residents are left in limbo?

[Dr Gardner]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend’s points.

The land I mentioned also contains a large quarry full of valuable reserves of Etruria marl. A major concern of mine with new developments is the impact on transport infrastructure. Access roads in Lightwood are minimal: one connects to a route already beset by traffic and speeding, while the other country lanes cannot safely accommodate significant traffic.

I have seen that in villages throughout my constituency, where villages are cut in half by major roads but not given safe crossings and speed restrictions. In Tittensor, villagers have been campaigning for over 30 years for a crossing, and in Draycott in the Moors, a large development and an industrial estate brought promises of high-quality traffic management measures that were watered down to a final proposal that will be incredibly disruptive to residents.

Reform-led Staffordshire county council has not supported my attempts to deliver safer roads, and the separation of responsibility between National Highways and the planning authority makes it an exceptionally difficult issue to solve. I ask the Minister, when responsibilities sit between multiple authorities, how can we ensure that the wider impact of developments on surrounding roads is properly considered, with co-ordinated action to support affected communities?

On a similar note, within the village of Tean, developments have led to an increase in flooding and sewage outflow. Developers tend to meet their requirements to build suitable infrastructure and flood mitigations on site, but the problem occurs when the outflow from the estates hits the water company’s mains, which have often not been updated to cope with increased demand. We then see flooding throughout the village and sewage outflow killing our rivers and streams.

Although water companies are consulted, they often put the onus on the developer to address increased demand. As far as I understand, there is no statutory requirement on water companies—in my case, Severn Trent Water—to upgrade their infrastructure to meet new demand. Without that, I question whether consulting water companies is anything more than a tick-box exercise. I ask the Minister, what powers can we enact to ensure that new developments are supported by upgrading main sewer systems, the responsibility for which lies with the water companies to deliver at their cost?

Many of my Lightwood constituents are concerned that the draft local plan does not make sufficient use of brownfield land. I reassure them that Stoke-on-Trent city council is doing the most building on brownfield sites on record. In my time as a local councillor, I had many battles with developers and the local council over proposed developments. That is not to say that I do not support new housing, nor that I always support residents’ objections, but I am a fierce advocate of green spaces and a built environment that support health and wellbeing.

That applies equally to our urban areas, which also deserve green spaces; in the push for brownfield redevelopment, I do not wish to see our urban areas concreted over. Innovative thinking and the use of existing buildings is therefore welcome. I commend plans to improve urban centres with thoughtful developments, such as the Tams building in Longton, and to increase housing in our town centres, utilising empty buildings and the upper floors of shops.

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is right to mention historic and heritage buildings. Across Stoke-on-Trent we have many such buildings that have been left vacant for far too long. With the right support and partnerships, they can be brought back into use. Although Stoke-on-Trent city council is rightly taking a brownfield-first approach to development, as she rightly said, does she agree that unlocking those heritage assets is a central part of our ambition to deliver homes for families across our area?

[Dr Gardner]

I commend my hon. Friend for his hard work on transforming our heritage buildings. Many of those buildings are owned by private landlords who neglect them and they are an eyesore in our towns.

Indeed, in Longton we have had several fires in buildings that have not been properly maintained. While I welcome the high street rental auctions, many of those buildings are not fit for use in their current state. I understand that councils have several powers to take ownership of derelict buildings on our high streets, but I am told that the funds required and the time it takes to hold property owners to account is often prohibitive. I ask the Minister, what additional powers and resources can we give to local authorities to address empty and derelict properties in town centres, hold property owners to account and repossess empty town centre buildings if needed?

I acknowledge, though, that reutilising inner urban areas may not meet the full demand for housing and that such areas may not always be accessible for our ageing population. We need large developments in some places, but the new designation of grey-belt land has caused confusion. To many of my constituents, the area in the Lightwood proposal is not grey-belt land; it is the countryside. While much of the land is agricultural, it is a rich area with newts, bats and badgers. In redesignating the land as grey belt, I ask the Minister for greater clarification on the meaning of green and grey-belt land, and whether that extends to areas that have agricultural-grade land and minimal built spaces.

In such cases, we must consider the delivery of suitable infrastructure, and if a community must be enlarged, we can offer benefits that improve the lives of everyone in the area. For example, in Yarnfield, which has several proposed sites in the local plan, villagers have been in a long battle to gain ownership of their local pub. The owners, Stonegate, seem to prefer to keep a decaying building up for sale rather than allow the village to revive it. I would greatly appreciate an update on the status of the community right to buy, which was announced in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, and further clarification as to how it can support my constituents in Yarnfield.

We must not allow communities to lose their heart and soul. Big developments must not be swathes of housing estates; they must be communities with the right social infrastructure, including pubs, shops and public services. The Home Builders Federation estimates that local authorities in England and Wales held more than £6 billion in unspent section 106 moneys and nearly £2 billion from the community infrastructure levy in 2024. It also estimates that over £800 million provided by developers for affordable housing is held in local authority bank accounts. That is unacceptable when so many constituents are fighting for the correct infrastructure for their communities, yet the money is available. I therefore ask the Minister how we can ensure that section 106 moneys are utilised in a timely and local manner.

We must ensure that councils are sufficiently resourced to carry out enforcement against developers not meeting their required duties. My constituent, Dennis Rothwell, has fought a constant battle against dust pollution from nearby development in Trentham Fields, and residents in Broadway have been reduced to tears of frustration at noise and dust. However, councils cannot hold developers to account without sufficient resource. There is a national shortage of planning enforcement officers, and that needs urgent attention.

In addition, although councils have a statutory duty to investigate breaches of planning law, there is no statutory duty to enforce against breaches. I suggest considering a process similar to the decriminalisation of parking enforcement to ensure that there is an impetus for councils to act on planning breaches. In so doing, council sanctions would accrue money that could then be repurposed for our communities. I ask the Minister to consider the merits of introducing statutory ringfenced funding at the local authority level to pay for planning enforcement and a refreshed approach to planning enforcement.

Developers must also be held to account when building affordable and accessible houses, but that must not come at the cost of quality infrastructure, green spaces and community character. Building is not just about meeting metrics; it is about delivering real improvements to new and existing residents and invoking a sense of civic pride with good-quality and diverse homes in good-quality communities.