Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 18)

1. Introduction

What is a Local Plan?

1.1 All planning authorities have a strategic plan which provides a framework for the future planning of their area. This is known as a Local Plan, and it provides the blueprint for future development of the borough. A key task of a local plan is to provide policies which will guide decisions on whether or not planning applications can be granted approval. In law the local plan is described as a development plan document which can consist of one or more documents including local plans and neighbourhood plans.

1.2 Dudley's current adopted Local Plan consists of a portfolio of planning documents, which are:

• Black Country Core Strategy: adopted in 2011, this document is a strategic planning document and sets out the strategic vision and objectives for the Black Country sub-region, including the amount of employment land and housing required across the sub-region to 2026. This Plan was prepared between the four Black Country authorities.
• Dudley Borough Development Strategy: adopted in 2017, this document sets out the specific proposals and policies for the use of land to guide future development, to help deliver the vision and objectives set out in the Black Country Core Strategy.
• Area Action Plans (AAPs): these include four AAPs for the borough's town centres and include specific policies and site allocations for the centres. The four AAPs and their adoption dates are as follows:
  • Brierley Hill AAP (adopted 2011)
  • Halesowen AAP (adopted in 2013)
  • Stourbridge AAP (adopted in 2013)
  • Dudley AAP (adopted in 2017).

What is a Local Plan review and why are we doing a review?

1.3 The government requires all local authorities to develop a long-term plan for their area that sets out how and where land will be developed over the next 15 years, to meet the growing needs of local people and businesses. The current Dudley Local Plans (listed above) will soon be out of date, and it is important that the Council produces a new and up to date plan for the borough.

1.4 The new DLP will provide a policy framework to:

• address the issue of climate change;
• protect and enhance designated areas of ecological and environmental importance;
• provide certainty over the types of development that are likely to be approved;
• promote and enhance health and well-being in accordance with health and well-being strategies;
• facilitate the delivery of development to meet identified and emerging needs in sustainable locations;
• help address future housing and employment needs to 2041;
• increase employment opportunities;
• support the aims of the Council's and the West Midlands Combined Authority's economic strategies; and
• ensure supporting infrastructure is provided to support new homes and employment provision.

1.5 The local plan review will provide for a full review of all the existing local plans within the borough to ensure that they are appropriate and have up-to-date planning policies as well as allocating new or existing sites required to meet identified development need. There have been several important changes to the planning system in recent years including the publication of a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and associated Planning Practice Guidance (PPG), including the standard approach for calculating housing need.

1.6 Government has been clear on its proposed changes to the current planning system and its intention for wholesale reform of England's planning system through its proposals in the 'Planning for the Future' white paper^[1] published in August 2020 and subsequent reforms proposed through the Levelling Up white paper published in February 2022^[2]. Planning reforms set out a move to a streamlined and redesigned approach to plan-making. Change to the current planning system has taken place at pace in relation to permitted development rights, and changes to the use classes order and a new standard method for the calculation of housing need – placing a strong emphasis upon the redevelopment of brownfield land and urban regeneration.

1.7 This draft plan which we are now consulting on, has been prepared in the context of national and local guidance and strategies. A range of evidence has been commissioned/undertaken to justify the spatial strategy and draft policies proposed within this Plan. Copies of the evidence base will be available to view, alongside consultation documents on the Council's website.

The role of the new Dudley Local Plan

1.8 The current local plan within Dudley consists of a portfolio of planning documents. It is proposed that the new Dudley Local Plan (referred to as DLP throughout this document) will radically simplify this existing structure into a single planning document. There are a number of drivers shaping this new plan direction:

• Clearer plan-making – with policy and site considerations worked up in parallel
• Potential major infrastructure investment providing the catalyst for significant regeneration in the borough
• Embedding site allocations within an increasing complex range of policy considerations.

1.9 Setting the foundations for a single plan to move forward within a revised national planning context.

1.10 The DLP will be a single planning document that provides the framework to guide future development in the borough. It sets out an ambitious Vision and set of objectives, followed by a clear and focussed spatial strategy. It includes strategic and non-strategic planning policies for managing development and infrastructure to meet the identified social, environmental, and economic challenges facing the area up to 2041, which will ensure that the local plan's Vision is met.

1.11 Taken as whole, the local plan policies implement the Vision and objectives, essentially setting out where development should take place, as well as identifying key areas that should be protected. Development will be guided by allocations for specific sites and by policies to be applied to planning applications. The Plan's policies make clear the approaches to delivering housing, employment, retail, leisure, community uses and activities and infrastructure across the borough, as well as protection for the environment and facilitating biodiversity net gain and nature recovery networks. Areas are designated on the policies map https://www.dudley.gov.uk/localplan where development will be resisted or where particular matters need to be considered, such as the green belt, or ecological designations.

1.12 The DLP will set out how much development is required in the borough up until 2041. This will include residential (including Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople accommodation) and employment uses. It will allocate the sites required to deliver the identified level of development needed.

1.13 It also sets out policies which will guide the determination of planning applications. These policies are likely to cover the same issues as those in the existing Local Plan such as promoting sustainable development, protecting and providing open spaces, design quality and protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment.

Dudley Local Plan and Climate Change

1.14 Climate change has been recognised internationally as the most important environmental challenge that we currently face and has a direct impact on the Council's activities and how we meet the needs of all residents and businesses in the borough.

1.15 The Council declared a climate emergency in 2020 and pledged to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 and a Carbon Neutral Borough by 2041. It is therefore critical that the new Local Plan provides greater ambition and measures for mitigating and adapting to climate change than previous Local Plans. The new DLP will act as a vehicle to encourage sustainable patterns of development, promoting carbon resilient design, and protecting the natural environment. As a result, climate change measures are a consistent thread that run through the Plan.

1.16 Policies within the draft DLP go beyond the more obvious climate change policies relating to renewable energy generation and energy efficiency measures for new buildings. The overall spatial strategy for the DLP focusses greater levels of development in the urban area which provides greater access to local facilities and services and public transport, thus reducing car dependency, achieving a more sustainable approach to development, and tackling climate change. Alongside this strategy, a plethora of other policies relating to open space provision, design (for example, the use of trees in landscaping schemes which can generate significant natural shading), parking standards (and requirement for electric vehicle charging points), sustainable transport/active travel measures, biodiversity net gain, and reducing flood risk, will all play their part as a package of environmentally focused policies.

How will the new local plan affect me?

1.17 The new DLP will result in new development. This document proposes how future development will be distributed across the borough and on which sites.

1.18 The proposals within this Plan are based on the evidence we have gathered so far to date, the requirements of national planning guidance, comments that have been made from previous local plan consultations and an assessment of sites.

What happens to the existing local plans?

1.19 Once adopted the DLP will replace all previous local plan documents that Dudley Council has adopted (including the Black Core Strategy, Dudley Borough Development Strategy and the Brierley Hill, Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridge Area Action Plans (AAPs)) and will contain a schedule of policies that remain saved from the previous plans, along with new supplementary planning documents.

Local Plan structure

1.20 The Dudley Local Plan is an integrated single plan which is structured as follows:

Part One of the DLP contains

• Section 1: Introduction
• Section 2: Profile of the borough
• Section 3: Context of the local plan
• Section 4: Spatial vision, strategic objective and priorities
• Section 5: Spatial Strategy and policies
• Section 6: Infrastructure
• Section 7: to Section 19: Thematic Policies detailed planning policies covering the economy, climate change, recreation, heritage, transport, housing, environment, health, centres, waste, minerals and development management.

Part Two of the DLP (separate document) sets out the policies and site allocations for Brierley Hill Strategic Centre, the town centresof Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridgeand the allocations for housing, employment, gypsy and traveller accommodation, Local Greenspace and Bio-diversity Net Gain.