The formal answer is ‘There are no plans at the moment'. Now there's a politician's response if ever there was one, so let's take a closer look at the situation.

The government says we have to have three million new homes by 2020 and, to cut a long story short, the Leeds share of this is over 50,000 new dwellings (houses and flats), something like 4,300 a year.   The fact is this figure is 50% higher than the rest of the country pro rata to population.  This and the fact that the 3m new homes target is simply unattainable, coming as it does at a time when house builders are laying off staff in droves, doesn't appear to enter into the equation..

In addition to the annual supply target, the government also requires the city to have five year's land supply deliverable for housing. That implies maintaining a stock of land for 22,000 dwellings at all times.

Against this background Leeds, like every other major authority is required to produce its Core Strategy setting out its vision for the city's development over the next 20 years or so.  A number of possible options or scenarios were identified and the subject of a consultation exercise over the winter months.  The next stage is that the council will shortly be publishing and then consulting on its Preferred Options. These would then have to go through the equivalent of a public inquiry process with a view to the Core Strategy being formally adopted in about three years time. 

Three of the scenarios up for discussion included firstly ‘Business as usual' - effectively carrying on as we are with some new housing on the rim though concentrating on regeneration, particularly in the Aire Valley as well. A second scenario ‘The compact city' would expand that theme further by concentrating further housing along the rail corridors. 

The third scenario ‘Dispersed development hubs' complements the first two scenarios by encouraging further housing development in South Leeds as well as on the rail corridors. 

Yes but what about Adel new town I hear you say?  Well the recent consultation did offer a fourth possible scenario, the idea of New Urban Neighbourhoods, which would concentrate new housing via five ‘new towns' on the rim of the city.  As to where the five ‘new towns' would actually be located was never entirely clear though it is true to say that the accompanying map included one vague indicative blob not far from the general Adel area. 

Right then how did the vote go?  Hang on a minute, the thing to remember is that there wasn't a vote - it was a consultation exercise inviting people's comments and it was made clear at the time of the consultation that the eventual Preferred Options might well be some mix of all four scenarios. 

What about the Green Belt?  That's a good question.  At the risk of mixing metaphors, green belts are not set in stone.  However the council's old Unitary Development Plan, which was only adopted as recently as 2001 included a green belt review. Green belts are typically reviewed roughly every 20 years or so, not least because it is an expensive and time consuming process inviting as it does all sorts of legal challenges from disappointed land owners.  

A green belt review for Leeds is not currently on the agenda but given the pressure for more housing who knows what future pressures there may be for a review in a few years time. 

And Eco-towns, we've heard a lot about them?  Well there at least we do have some certainty. The government has issued a short list for up to 15 new eco towns and neither Adel nor Leeds, as a whole, is included. 

OK, even if Adel new town is little more than a possibility, we elect the councillors to represent us so why don't they just say we are not having it? Finish. The trouble is we are not our own masters when it comes to planning.  Whatever we may like to do, in the end if we turn down a planning application for new houses the chances are any developer will go to appeal. 

In that event an independent inspector is appointed to consider the appeal and he or she has to take account not only of government planning policies and the council's Unitary Development Plan but also of course the newly emerging Core Strategy.  Putting things very simply, if the city council is unable to demonstrate that is has a five year supply of developable housing land available around the city any inspector is likely to uphold any appeal on the grounds that the city has failed to make available a sufficient supply of developable land.