Up to 70 homes are being proposed on green belt land at Alderley Edge, in a test of the government’s new “grey belt” planning rules.
Bellway Homes has submitted an outline application to Cheshire East Council for the development on 3.18 hectares of pastoral agricultural land west of Wilmslow Road. Access would be created via a priority T-junction from Wilmslow Road.
The design and access statement submitted with the application sets out a mix of detached, semi-detached and mews-style homes, ranging from two to five bedrooms and rising to 2.5 storeys, with associated car parking and landscaping. The scheme includes 45 per cent affordable housing, along with around 0.92 hectares of landscaping, public open space and ecological areas, which the planning statement describes as a “significant” area of publicly accessible open space.
Savills, acting as planning consultant for Bellway, argues the site is in a sustainable location within walking and cycling distance of key services, facilities and public transport. But the central justification for building on green belt land rests on the claim that the land qualifies as “grey belt” – a new category introduced into the National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024.
Under the revised NPPF, land can be classified as grey belt if it either is previously developed or does not strongly contribute to the core purposes of the green belt: preventing urban sprawl, stopping neighbouring towns merging, and safeguarding the setting of historic towns. If the designation applies, development on such land is no longer automatically considered “inappropriate” in green belt terms, and the requirement to demonstrate “very special circumstances” is bypassed.
The planning statement contends that the site meets these criteria. It acknowledges “minor harm” in terms of localised landscape and visual impact, and a contravention of the out-of-date open countryside policy, but argues that “these limited harms do not outweigh the significant benefits”.
To gain permission on grey belt land, the NPPF requires applicants to satisfy four tests: that the site is indeed grey belt; that development would not fundamentally undermine the remaining green belt; that there is demonstrable unmet housing need; and that for major schemes, specific “Golden Rules” contributions are made. These Golden Rules demand at least 15 per cent more affordable housing than the local policy requires (capped at 50 per cent), necessary infrastructure improvements, and provision of new or improved publicly accessible green space. Bellway’s offer of 45 per cent affordable homes is substantial in that context.
The claim of unmet housing need is a central pillar of the case. Cheshire East Council’s latest Housing Monitoring Update, with a base date of 31 March 2025 and published in April 2026, identified a deliverable five-year housing land supply of 8,780 dwellings – equivalent to only 3.3 years’ supply. This is a decline from 3.8 years in the previous reporting period. National planning policy states that when a council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply, housing developments may be permitted even where they conflict with local plan policies. The council’s annual local housing need has also risen sharply following national reforms, from under 1,000 homes to around 2,600 per year.
The planning statement from Savills concludes: “The scheme would result in the delivery of up to 70 homes at a time when the council cannot demonstrate a requisite level of housing land supply for the five-year period. … The proposals also deliver 45 per cent affordable homes. Other moderate and minor benefits are associated with economic impacts, provision of new publicly accessible open space, and biodiversity net gain.”
Green belt pressure and local context
Alderley Edge is designated as a Local Service Centre in Cheshire East’s Local Plan Strategy (2010–2030), which supports “small scale development to meet needs and priorities”. The village is inset within the green belt, and the Alderley Edge Neighbourhood Development Plan records that residents place a high value on village character, open green spaces and access to the countryside. Previous attempts to allocate green belt land for development have proved contentious; the council removed several green belt site allocations from its Site Allocations and Development Policies Document in 2020.
The Conservation Area was placed on the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register in 2009 due to development pressures. More recently, another developer, Story Homes, has proposed up to 136 homes on land identified as grey belt and safeguarded land on the western fringe of Alderley Edge, also citing the council’s lack of five-year housing supply. While not directly linked to the Bellway proposal, that application has raised concerns about potential impacts on Whitehall Brook and local flooding, after significant flooding was reported in January 2025.
Bellway’s planning document insists the proposed development “has been designed to be in keeping with the character of surrounding area and land uses”. The application – number 26/1143/OUT – can be viewed on the planning portal on Cheshire East Council’s website. The last date for submitting comments is May 27.
