Sandwell Council is unable to meet more than 45% of the government’s housing target of 26,000 new homes by 2041 due to a severe shortage of available land. Only about 11,900 homes can be built within the borough using all suitable land currently identified.
Andy Miller, the council’s strategic planning and transportation manager, described the situation as a “chronic” lack of buildable land. Speaking at the economy, skills, transport and environment scrutiny board last week, he explained, “We’re nowhere near the figure the government has set for us. We’re only able to actually deliver 45% of our need and that is having allocated almost every piece of land that is available to be built on.”
Sandwell is an urban area with limited open spaces and no surrounding countryside to expand into, which contributes to the constrained land supply. This scarcity also affects employment land, with only 70 acres available compared to a minimum estimated need of over 200 acres. Projections based on economic growth estimates suggest up to 530 acres could be needed in the next 15 years, leaving the borough significantly underprepared for business land requirements.
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The council is in the process of developing a new local plan to guide development up to 2044. This follows delays and the withdrawal of Dudley Council in 2022, which caused the collapse of the joint Black Country Plan. Sandwell’s previous plan has yet to be adopted but is expected to be ratified by December this year. Work on the new local plan began in January 2024 and aims to replace its predecessor by 2029.
Despite ongoing efforts, the council has found very few additional sites available for development since its last ‘call for sites’ in 2023. The current appeal for landowners to submit suitable plots closes at the end of this month, but Mr Miller warned that “we think we found pretty much every piece of land that could possibly be built on but we might have missed something.”
This land shortage presents a considerable challenge to meeting housing and employment needs as Sandwell looks to the future, highlighting the complexities faced by urban boroughs when balancing growth and land availability.