Sandwell’s Local Plan: Homes, Jobs, Wages, Green Space — And A Warning To Reform

Sandwell’s Local Plan: Homes, Jobs, Wages, Green Space — And A Warning To Reform

There is a dangerous little trick in local politics.

Take something complicated. Wrap it in officer language. Call it a “Local Plan”. Add a few glossy maps, some consultation boards, a couple of buzzwords about growth, sustainability and opportunity — and hope the public glaze over before they realise what is actually being decided.

Because make no mistake, Sandwell’s Local Plan is not just a planning document.

It is a map of who gets listened to.
Who gets built over.
Who gets the jobs.
Who gets the traffic.
Who gets the low wages.
Who gets the warehouses.
Who loses the green space.
And who is expected to shut up and be grateful afterwards.

Sandwell Council says the Local Plan was submitted to the Secretary of State on 11 December 2024, with an independent examination now under way, and the council’s own timetable points towards adoption in summer 2026. The Main Modifications consultation has already been and gone, running from 16 February to 30 March 2026. So this is not some distant academic exercise. This is live. This is now. This is the rulebook that developers, officers, inspectors and planning committees will be reaching for when the bulldozers start sniffing around.

And here is the blunt bit.

Sandwell needs homes. Of course it does.

But Sandwell also needs proper jobs. Better wages. Protected employment land. Apprenticeships. Skills. Transport. Schools. GPs. Drainage. Safe roads. Parks. Wildlife corridors. Green space. Brownfield regeneration. Empty homes brought back into use. Contaminated land cleaned up.

What Sandwell does not need is another round of “regeneration” where developers make the profit, residents get the traffic, green space disappears, employment land gets quietly sacrificed, and the council puts out a press release about “unlocking growth”.

We have heard that one before.

Sandwell Is Not A Blank Sheet For Developers

Sandwell is not some wealthy leafy borough moaning because someone wants to build a few houses near a nice view.

Sandwell is one of the most deprived places in the country. Sandwell Trends records the borough as the 19th most deprived local authority out of 296 on the 2025 deprivation score, and says large areas of Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich are heavily deprived.

That matters.

Because in a borough like Sandwell, planning is not just about bricks. It is about poverty. Health. Opportunity. Mobility. Access. Wages. Life chances.

The ONS local labour data shows Sandwell’s employment rate at 69.8% for people aged 16 to 64, lower than the West Midlands rate of 75.2%. Sandwell’s unemployment rate was 6.0%, higher than the West Midlands rate of 4.4%, and economic inactivity was 25.7%, higher than both the West Midlands and Great Britain rate of 21.2%.

So when someone waves around a shiny Local Plan and says “new homes” and “new jobs”, the proper Sandwell answer should be:

What homes?
Where?
For whom?
At what price?
What jobs?
What wages?
What skills?
What transport?
What infrastructure?
And who pays when it all goes wrong?

Because “jobs” can mean skilled manufacturing, apprenticeships, engineering, green industry, construction, retrofit, repair, local SMEs and proper wage progression.

Or it can mean low-wage sheds, zero-hours work, agency labour, fast food strips, car washes, storage units and another dead-edge industrial estate that looks like it was designed by someone who hates human beings.

Let us not pretend they are the same.

Employment Land: The Bit They Hope You Don’t Notice

Everyone shouts about housing numbers. Fewer people notice the employment land.

That is a mistake.

Once employment land is gone, it is usually gone for good. A workshop becomes flats. A small industrial estate becomes “residential-led regeneration”. A site that could have supported apprenticeships, trades, manufacturing or local businesses becomes another box-ticking development with a token café and three hanging baskets.

Then ten years later, councillors look puzzled and ask why local people have to travel further for poorer jobs.

Well, perhaps because the land for proper work was sold, rezoned, neglected, or quietly handed over to the housing machine.

Sandwell must not let that happen.

The test should be simple:

Before any employment land is released for housing, Sandwell Council must prove it is genuinely surplus to future economic need.

Not inconvenient.
Not underused because the council failed to invest.
Not unattractive because access, security, drainage, power or broadband were neglected.
Not “better as housing” because the developer’s spreadsheet prefers it.

Genuinely surplus.

And if it is not genuinely surplus, protect it, improve it, and use it to build the Sandwell economy properly.

Green Space Is Not Spare Land

The same applies to green space.

Sandwell’s parks, nature reserves, informal greens, wildlife corridors, former playing fields, canal edges and open spaces are not spare bits left over for the planning department to colour in.

They are public health infrastructure.
They are flood buffers.
They are children’s breathing space.
They are wildlife routes.
They are community assets.
They are mental health support without a waiting list.

The Community Planning Alliance councillor briefing warns against uncontrolled greenfield development, saying it can mean loss of farmland, habitats and valued green spaces, car-dependent sprawl, infrastructure pressure, weak affordable housing delivery and a democratic deficit.

That warning fits Sandwell like a glove.

We do not need lazy planning dressed up as necessity.

We need:

Brownfield first.
Empty homes first.
Vacant buildings first.
Town centres first.
Contaminated land cleaned up first.
Infrastructure first.
Green space last.

Not as a slogan. As a hard rule.

Infrastructure: No More “It’ll Come Later”

Residents know this game.

The developer promises the earth. Roads, schools, drainage, doctors, open space, cycle routes, affordable homes, jobs, buses, unicorns and a brass band.

Then the application gets approved.

Then comes “viability”.
Then comes “phasing”.
Then comes “subject to funding”.
Then comes “market conditions”.
Then comes “unforeseen circumstances”.
Then comes the traffic.
Then comes the school pressure.
Then comes the GP shortage.
Then comes the flooding.
Then comes the council telling residents it is all very complicated.

No.

Major developments should come with hard, enforceable infrastructure conditions.

The CPA briefing points to Grampian conditions — planning conditions that can stop development starting, or stop later phases or occupation, until specific infrastructure is delivered. It says these can be used for roads, schools, GP surgeries, water supply and sewage capacity.

Sandwell should be using that logic ruthlessly.

No infrastructure, no occupation.
No school capacity, no phase two.
No drainage proof, no diggers.
No GP capacity, no hand-waving.
No highways solution, no consent.

That is not anti-growth.

That is pro-resident.

And Now A Warning To Reform

Reform now controls Sandwell Council.

That means the easy bit is over.

Opposition is easy.
Facebook posts are easy.
Campaign leaflets are easy.
Blaming Labour is easy — and after decades of Labour control, there is plenty to blame.

But control is different.

Now Reform will be judged on what it does, not just what it says.

And on the Local Plan, planning, green space, jobs, wages and regeneration, the judgement will come quickly.

If Reform simply waves through the same officer assumptions, the same tired consultation habits, the same developer-friendly language, the same weak transparency, and the same “we know best” culture, residents will notice.

Fast.

This is where Reform has to prove it is not just a change of rosettes on the same old machine.

It must involve people.
It must engage residents.
It must publish the evidence.
It must explain the trade-offs.
It must listen before decisions are cooked.
It must not hide behind officers.
It must not treat scrutiny as an irritation.
It must not treat objectors as troublemakers.

And yes — it must involve the awkward squad.

Especially the awkward squad.

Because every council needs people who ask the uncomfortable questions. The people who read the reports. The people who spot the missing appendix. The people who know the history. The people who remember what was promised last time. The people who ask why a green space is suddenly “underused”. The people who ask why employment land is being lost. The people who ask why wages are not mentioned. The people who ask where the GP capacity is. The people who ask whether consultation was real or theatre.

Those people are not the enemy.

They are the early warning system.

Ignore them, and Reform will very quickly discover that Sandwell residents did not vote for a new administration just to get the old habits in a different wrapper.

The Sandwell Test

The test for the Local Plan should be clear.

Does it protect green space?

Does it prioritise brownfield land?

Does it bring empty homes and vacant buildings back into use?

Does it protect proper employment land?

Does it create jobs Sandwell people can actually access?

Does it raise wages, or just count low-paid jobs as “growth”?

Does it force infrastructure before occupation?

Does it protect deprived communities from being dumped on again?

Does it treat consultation as democracy, not decoration?

Does it involve residents early enough to matter?

Does it publish evidence in plain English?

Does it make developers prove local benefit?

If the answer is no, the plan is not good enough.

Sandwell Deserves Better Than Managed Decline

Sandwell has been poor for too long.

Too many people have accepted low wages as normal.
Too many communities have been told to be grateful for scraps.
Too much land has been neglected until someone can make money from it.
Too many decisions have been made over residents’ heads.
Too many consultations have felt like theatre.
Too many green spaces have been eyed up as development opportunities.
Too many schemes have arrived with promises, then left residents with consequences.

That has to stop.

Sandwell needs homes, yes.

But it also needs proper jobs, better wages, skills, apprenticeships, employment land, green space, clean land, good transport, working infrastructure, honest consultation and political courage.

The Local Plan must not lock poverty in for another generation.

And Reform, now in control, needs to understand this very clearly:

Residents will not wait four years to judge you.

They will judge you by whether you open the doors, publish the evidence, involve the awkward squad, protect communities, challenge lazy assumptions, and stop the developer-first culture that has failed Sandwell for far too long.

Because if the new lot behave like the old lot, people will say so.

Loudly.

And some of us have had plenty of practice.

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