Dudley Local Plan Part One

1. Introduction

What is a Local Plan?

1.1All 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.

1.2Dudley’s previous adopted Local Plan consisted of a portfolio of planning documents. The following document have now been superseded following the adoption of the Dudley Local Plan:

• Black Country Core Strategy
• Dudley Borough Development Strategy
• Area Action Plans (AAPs):
  • 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?

1.3The 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.

1.4The 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 wellbeing in accordance with health and wellbeing strategies;
• create safe, welcoming, and high-quality accessible places, which are designed to encourage positive public interactions and minimise antisocial behaviour.
• 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/regeneration strategies; and
• ensure supporting infrastructure is provided to support new homes and employment provision.

1.5The 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.

1.6Government 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 introduced in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023^[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.

Transitional Arrangements

1.7DLP was submitted for examination in February 2025 in line with the transitional arrangements set out at paragraph 236 of the NPPF (December 2024). As the housing requirement in the DLP meets less than 80% of local housing need in the most up to date NPPF, this means that the Council is required to begin work on a new plan under the new plan-making system in line with The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026.

The role of the new Dudley Local Plan

1.8The previous local plan within Dudley consisted of a portfolio of planning documents. 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.

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

1.10The DLP is 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.

1.11Taken 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.

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

1.13It also sets out policies which will guide the determination of planning applications. Such as promoting sustainable development, protecting and providing open spaces, design quality and protecting and enhancing the natural and historic environment.

1.14Supplementary guidance, including reference to Supplementary Documents (SPD) is referred to in the justification text and evidence and delivery sections which support the policies in the Plan. Whilst these documents and guidance are a material consideration in decision-making and will assist in the implementation of the Plan policies, this additional guidance does not introduce new policy. Any references to national policy within the policies should be taken to include the latest national planning policy framework (or equivalent) and its associated up to date national planning guidance (or equivalent).

Dudley Local Plan and Climate Change

1.15Climate 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.

1.16The Council declared a climate emergency in 2020 and pledged to achieve net zero carbon by 2030 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.

1.17Policies 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?

1.18The new DLP will result in new development. This document proposes how future development will be distributed across the borough and on which sites.

1.19The proposals within this Plan are based on the evidence we have gathered, the requirements of national planning guidance, comments were made during several local plan consultations and an assessment of sites.

Local Plan structure

1.20Part One of the Plan sets out the spatial strategy, vision and objectives for the Local Plan, alongside the policy framework against which planning applications will be determined. Part One should be read in conjunction with Part Two of the Plan.

1.21Part Two of the Plan contains policies for each of the borough’s Town centres and the Strategic Centre of Brierley Hill. Part Two should therefore be referred to when looking at site allocations or developments within centres. Part Two also sets out gypsy and traveller accommodation and Local Green Space sites.

1.22Throughout the Plan, each policy is set out with introductory text, the policy (indicated in a purple box), justification text. Where relevant, evidence and delivery information have been provided.

1.23The 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 centres of Dudley, Halesowen and Stourbridge and the allocations for housing, employment, gypsy and traveller accommodation and Local Green Space.