Councillors have approved a plan for building 400 homes a year in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's new local plan will guide all development in the area up to the year 2040, allocating sites for housing, employment and other uses.

The council's Reform UK leaders, who inherited the draft plan after taking control of the authority in May, eventually recommended approval, despite still having some reservations.

Elected members voted 32 to six in favour of adopting the local plan at Wednesday's full council meeting.

The draft plan was prepared and submitted under the Conservative administration, with the planning inspector issuing her final report recommending approval on 19 May – the day before Reform took power.

Deputy council leader Graham Shaw told the meeting that Reform had concerns over issues such as net zero wording, HMOs and agricultural land, but was told by the inspector that no further changes to the plan would be possible.

He said Reform had been caught 'between a rock and a hard place', as not having an up-to-date plan would leave the borough's green spaces exposed to speculative development.

Cllr Shaw said: "The question today is not whether this is the perfect plan – it's not. The question is whether the borough is safer with it or without it. We have concluded, reluctantly but responsibly, that the danger of not adopting the plan is far greater.

"Without this plan we would fall back onto old policies from 2009. We only have a three-year housing land supply. That means developers have a stronger hand. It would mean more speculative applications, more planning by appeal, and more risk of sites being forced onto communities without the infrastructure that a local plan provides."

The motion to adopt the plan was passed with the support of most Reform councillors and the Conservative opposition group. Four Reform councillors and two Labour councillors voted against it, complaining about specific site allocations in areas such as Audley and Keele.

Conservative councillor Andrew Fear said the plan had to meet the housing target for the borough set by government, meaning any housing site allocation removed would have to be replaced elsewhere.

He also argued that Newcastle's local plan will mean less development than the scrapped North Staffordshire joint local plan, which the council pulled out of in 2021.

Cllr Fear said: "I commend Reform's responsible approach to endorse the plan, which has been in generation for a very long time. This is a plan that has tried to make sure that the impositions of national government are imposed upon us as lightly as is possible.

"I would agree that nothing is perfect. But in terms of what we have in front of us, this is a sound plan. It's gone through more than the amount of consultation required. It's offering the minimum amount of housing required and employment opportunities."

Controversial sites in the final version of the plan include AB2 – an 80-hectare employment site in the Green Belt near Audley – and the former Keele Golf Course, which has been earmarked for 900 homes.

Labour group leader Dave Jones said he could not support a plan that included these allocations.

He said: "A flawed plan that locks in the wrong site at Audley, damages a site of real biodiversity at Keele, fails to secure social housing that this borough desperately needs, is not automatically the safer choice just because the alternative carries a risk.

"AB2 takes 80 hectares of agricultural Green Belt land and turns it into six large distribution warehouses. The need for this employment land should have first been met within the Chatterley Valley development site."

All three Reform councillors Audley voted against adopting the local plan.

Councillor Rhys Machin, one of the three, said: "We understand the position the council is in, and we know there serious risks if the council rejects the plan. But the reality is this is not a plan that we wrote. We did not choose these sites.

"We were elected to represent Audley and we have to be honest about what residents have told us. There are real concerns about the impact of development on our roads, our schools, local character and green spaces."

The government has ordered the council to start work on an updated local plan, which would have to meet an increased housing target of 559 homes a year.

But cabinet members voted against starting a new local plan process last month, saying it made little sense with the council potentially facing abolition under local government organisation.