Stafford Borough Council has officially launched its Call for Sites process - an opportunity for landowners, agents, and developers to propose land for potential future development in the Borough. This includes places like Stone, Gnosall, Eccleshall and the urban area of Stafford itself, which includes Baswich, Berkswich and Walton-on-the-Hill.
This marks the crucial first step in supporting the council’s evidence base for updating its next Local Plan, for which more land must be identified for development in order to meet higher new housing targets. This is an opportunity for landowners to try and secure planning permission on land that may not be prioritised for development under current planning policy.
Every council in England is required to have a Local Plan that details both how much and where development is needed in the following 15 years, and these should generally be updated every five years to ensure relevancy and reflect current policy. Stafford’s current plan was adopted over a decade ago in 2014, which means it is critical that it be updated.
Due to the government's new formula for calculating housing targets, the council will have to find enough land to deliver at least 751 new homes each year - a big increase on the 500 homes annually their previous Plan sought to deliver.
The timetable for the new Local Plan for Stafford Borough sets out a first draft to be completed by September 2026 and adoption of the final version for the end of 2027. This Call for Sites exercise marks the first step in evidence gathering for this.
Sites can be submitted to the council at any point, after which planning officers at the council will review them and assess their suitability for development. All suitable sites will be collated into a list from which the eventual Local Plan development sites will be selected.
You can find out more about the Call for Sites process here.
It’s important to make a good first impression to the council about your site, as this may well be the first time they have seen or considered your land for development. Stafford Council provide a form to fill in with the details about your site, but usually it is necessary to submit even more information than they request. The more information they have, the more of an informed and accurate assessment they will make.
The Strategic Land Group prepares Development Statements on behalf of our landowner partners covering matters like transport, ecology, drainage, landscape, heritage, flood risk and all the other issues which will be important to the council’s decision. Our objective is to make it as easy as possible for the council to choose your site for development.
All of this is undertaken at our own cost and risk. We only charge landowners a fee if we are successful in first securing planning permission for their land and then finding a developer to buy it. If we don’t succeed in both of those steps, it doesn’t cost our partners anything. Our fee is a share of the value of the site once it is sold so you can also be sure we have the same objective – to secure the best possible price in the shortest possible time.
If you know of a site that could benefit from our approach – in Stafford or anywhere else - get in touch today for a free, no obligation consultation.
