Government forces Erewash council to use housing blueprint it doesn't want

The Government is forcing the Labour-led Erewash Borough Council to adopt a plan it does not want

Central Government has blocked a Derbyshire council from withdrawing its plans for where 5,800 homes could be built over the next 14 years. Housing minister Lee Rowley, also Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, has formally intervened to stop Labour-led Erewash Borough Council from withdrawing its core strategy – a blueprint outlining development up to 2037 to meet housing targets.

Mr Rowley’s use of Section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to carry out the block is only the second time the Government has intervened in such a way, but now the second time in three months. Former minister Rachel Maclean, replaced in mid-November, used the same form of intervention in September for the first time with Spelthorne Borough Council (no overall control), in Surrey, also to prevent it from withdrawing its development blueprint.

His letter to Erewash, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, outlines that the borough’s current development plan was adopted in 2014 and is within the 30 per cent of oldest blueprints in the country. It says withdrawing the plan would extend the period in which the borough does not have an up-to-date blueprint and would be “failing or omitting” to take proper preparations.

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The letter writes: “In withdrawing the draft plan, the council would be further failing to plan for and deliver the homes that people need. Withdrawing the plan at this stage will lead to significant further delay whilst a new plan is prepared.”

The Government has ordered Erewash not to take any steps to withdraw its plan and to provide monthly updates on its progress to adopt it and to publish and adopt any changes suggested by the inspector currently overseeing the borough’s draft blueprint. Mr Rowley’s intervention came yesterday (November 30), just four hours before Erewash was due to withdraw its plan in a landmark “extraordinary” meeting, following a change in administration from Conservative to Labour in May’s elections.

As a result, the meeting went ahead but was formally adjourned to a later date and closed after 10 minutes, with the council to seek legal advice on next steps and then make a decision to either challenge central Government or abide by its orders. Now the authority is set to be forced to adopt and oversee a development plan it does not want and that it campaigned to overthrow and review.

This included opposition to 240 homes on Green Belt land next to Spondon Wood, 250 homes at Cotmanhay Wood, 600 homes in Oakwood and 1,300 homes around Kirk Hallam. Councillors from all political parties on the authority appeared shocked at the announcement, made by Labour leader James Dawson, with it appearing that no prior communication had been given by the Conservative Government to its own local party.

Cllr Dawson made his distaste at the move clear, telling the LDRS: “We were left with no other option than to adjourn the meeting and we had to have it take place because it had already been called. There was no chance, with four hours’ notice, for the council to seek any form of legal advice.

“There has been no other communication with the council officers before this letter and this just rides roughshod over people’s democratic choice, to threaten to take it out of our hands unless we do as they say. The Government is effectively holding a gun to the council’s head and telling us to do as they say.

“We are not the first council to do this (withdraw a development plan) after a change in administration. They are saying we are not hitting our housing target but this administration is not responsible for that. It has just perplexed everybody.”

During last night’s meeting, Cllr Dawson said: “This afternoon, with less than four hours’ notice of this meeting, the Conservative Government at Westminster has decided that voters in Erewash do not matter. Their elected council administration is not allowed to fulfil its democratic mandate, obtained in May, all because of a Tory minister playing politics from Westminster, threatening the council and its legally democratically elected members.

“This is nothing short of the Conservative Party attempting to bully and intimidate Erewash and its residents. We will continue to oppose Tory incompetence. Make no mistake that this is an attack on local democracy, an unprecedented power grab, and first and foremost a disgrace.”

Cllr Wayne Major, leader of Erewash’s Conservative group, told the LDRS: “We always believed it is a good plan that is why it was submitted to the planning inspectorate. It will deliver the housing and infrastructure that residents of Erewash need.

“We had two public consultations on the setting of the core strategy and we are pleased to see it going forward.”

Paul Harvey, speaking on behalf of the Kirk Hallam Green Squeeze campaign group, told the LDRS: “What we’ve seen here tonight is an outrageous attempt by central Government not just to meddle in local matters but to subvert the entire democratic process. Were this to succeed, which it could still do, it would call into question the very existence of local government, the planning process and most importantly the right of people to have a say in local affairs.

“This is just one step away from a dystopian society where local planning is controlled by faceless bureaucrats direct from London and is straight from the pages of 1984 and Mr Putin’s version of democracy. Just a few weeks ago this country paid homage to the thousands of people who gave their lives in two world wars for our freedom of choice – something that the Government seems to forget when convenient.”

Erewash has to find places to allocate 386 new homes to be built each year up until 2037, totalling around 5,800. The draft which is close to being finalised had been signed off by the previous Conservative administration in March 2022, with the first planned hearings due to take place from December 12.

Papers written up for this week’s meeting show that if the current plan was scrapped it would likely take until summer 2026 to finalise a new one, with the existing draft set to come into force in summer 2024. They also say that withdrawing the plan would cost half a million pounds when the council is already struggling to close a budget black hole of £1 million.

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