Shropshire braces for landmark test of development policy
A sixteen-day public inquiry is set to test Shropshire Council’s ability to determine where large housing developments are built, a year after the authority’s emerging local plan was ditched.
An 800-home scheme, potentially set to increase the size of Albrighton by a third, was thrown out by Shropshire Council in December last year, who said the proposals formed an inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
The cash-strapped authority has shown considerable resolve in its efforts to fend off the proposals by Boningale Homes, but the council will now have to put its money and legal resources behind its commitment – while the developer will be hoping the authority’s lack of five year housing supply will weigh heavily in its favour when the case is heard by planning inspectors in September.
The case is being billed as an important test for whether local planning authorities in similar positions are able to resist applications for large developments in Green Belt, with ramifications potentially extending beyond the borders of one of England’s most rural counties.
Shropshire Council’s case will doubtless not be aided by its lack of an up-to-date local development plan, the emerging policy was withdrawn after being written off as “unsound” by the Planning Inspectorate last year, and current calculations show the authority can currently only demonstrate a housing land supply of 4.61 years.
The village’s location on the eastern fringe of the county also places it in the crosshairs for Shropshire’s “duty to co-operate” with its neighbouring authorities, with the county accepting a need to provide around 1,500 homes for Black Country residents up to 2038.
But residents in the village of Albrighton who have fiercely opposed the proposals up until now could now form a Rule 6 party in an effort to fend off the proposals – a move they say could help redress the balance in what they believe to be a David vs Goliath-style mismatch of resources in their battle with Boningale.
Shropshire councillor Nigel Lumby speaks at a residents meeting about the Albrighton South housing development at the Red House on Thursday, 23 April, 2026. Photo credit: Mike Sheridan/Place Midlands
At a meeting of around 200 residents in the village this week, local councillor Nigel Lumby offered his backing to the efforts of campaign group Albrighton Development Action Group to resist the scheme – adding that defeat could open the flood-gates for speculative development elsewhere in the county.
“This is probably one of the biggest arguments about the current government’s grey belt rules in the whole of the country,” he said.
“If we fall, the dam will break for the rest of Shropshire, because any developer will be able to say; ‘If we can build on those beautiful green fields outside of Albrighton, we can do it anywhere’.”
Those lessons are being learned in other areas of the country too. West Northamptonshire’s councillors have been told to brace themselves for an increase in speculative planning applications after a 700-home scheme was approved on appeal last year, despite objectors concerns over traffic, infrastructure and the loss of farmland.
Like Shropshire, West Northants also lacks an up-to-date local plan and cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of development land. The two authorities are not outliers either – Government statistics show fewer than a third of local authorities currently have up to date local plans, prompting a Whitehall push to force planning authorities to speed up their proposals.
For the meantime, Shropshire will take its case to a public inquiry, set to begin on 16 September.
Whatever the outcome, the ruling will send a clear signal on how far Green Belt protections hold when councils lack a five-year housing supply. For Shropshire, it is a high-stakes bid to retain control without an up-to-date plan; for developers, a test case for pushing through major schemes.
The decision is likely to shape not just Albrighton’s future, but the direction of travel for exposed authorities nationwide.
Boningale Homes declined to comment until the outcome of the appeal hearing is known later this year.
