New Solihull plans reveal where 22k homes could be built

Solihull could see almost 22,000 new homes built over the next 17 years under a major new plan which is now moving closer to a decision.

The draft Local Plan sets out where the council believes new housing could be delivered across the borough up to 2043, as Solihull Council faces a much higher Government housing target.

It is one of the biggest changes facing the borough, with the new plan having to find room for thousands of additional homes while also protecting areas of green belt.

Among the locations already identified is Mell Square, where the redevelopment could eventually provide up to 1,600 homes.

The plan also includes 469 homes in the Heart of Solihull Quarter and around 100 homes in Chelmsley Wood town centre.

Another major part of the housing plans is Arden Cross, the 340-acre site around the proposed HS2 Interchange.

The site was previously expected to become a new community of up to 3,000 homes. However, changes to the HS2 timetable mean the council is currently counting around 1,600 homes towards its housing supply during the period covered by the plan.

Thousands of homes still to be revealed

Despite the headline figure of almost 22,000 homes, residents will not yet know where all of them could be built.

The draft plan says locations for more than 8,000 homes have not yet been publicly identified.

Those “broad locations” are due to be provided to Cabinet members before the council's meeting next week.

The plan also looks at the potential for new housing close to railway stations.

An assessment of land within 1,000 metres of Solihull's stations found potential capacity for 8,219 homes.

That does not mean 8,219 homes will automatically be built around stations.

The council says sites within an 800-metre walking distance of a station could be considered for development, while proposals further away would need to meet additional requirements.

There are already around 20 major residential planning applications awaiting decisions across the borough, containing proposals for more than 4,000 homes.

What happens to the green belt?

The scale of the housing requirement is particularly significant for Solihull because around two-thirds of the borough is designated as green belt.

The new plan identifies several gaps which the council says should remain protected, including land between:

• Solihull's urban edge and Dickens Heath

• Solihull's urban edge and Cheswick Green

• Dickens Heath and Tidbury Green

• Dickens Heath and Cheswick Green

• Cheswick Green and Blythe Valley Park

The council is also having to work with a significantly higher housing requirement than when its previous plan was produced.

The annual figure has risen from 816 homes to 1,289, a 58 per cent increase.

That means the new Local Plan has to accommodate a much larger number of homes while setting out how development should take place across the borough.

When will residents have their say?

The draft plan is due to be considered by Solihull Council's Cabinet at a specially arranged meeting on Tuesday 29 September.

If Cabinet agrees to move it forward, it will then go before the full council.

A council approval would be followed by a six-week period when residents and other interested parties can submit comments.

The plan would then be sent to the Government for independent examination.

Councillor Andrew Mackiewicz, cabinet portfolio holder for climate change and planning, said the council was trying to meet its housing requirements while protecting areas including the green belt and Meriden Gap.

For residents, however, one of the biggest questions is still unanswered: where exactly will the thousands of new homes go?

More than 8,000 of the homes included in the plan have yet to have their broad locations revealed.