Lichfield District Council has been told more new housing is needed.
The comments came from Planning Inspector Bob Yuille who indicated that a further 900 properties would be needed by 2028 on top of the 8,700 included in the local authority’s Local Plan.
The council have been given six months to identify possible locations for the homes.
The Local Plan has already suggested:
- 450 homes south of Lichfield
- 750 homes east of Lichfield (north of Streethay)
- 1,000 homes in Fradley
- 375 homes on Land East of the Burntwood bypass
- 1,125 homes east of Rugeley
- 1,000 homes North of Tamworth
- 320 homes between rural settlements of Alrewas, Armitage, Fazeley, Shenstone and Whittington
Cllr Ian Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Development Services, said: “In relation to housing locations and numbers, the inspector confirmed we have identified the best sites, but that we need to incorporate more homes in our plan before it can be judged as sound overall.
“With regards to housing numbers, the inspector has indicated that we need to make sure at least a further 900 homes are included in our plan between now and 2028.
“He has given us around six months to carry out this work, which will involve identifying potential housing sites, consulting again with local people and organisations and updating the plan to reflect the new homes.”
The Inspector told the council that other areas of the plan – including working well with neighbouring councils when drawing up the document – were sound.
He will report his findings on issues such as biodiversity, renewable energy and employment in the coming months.
“Today’s report represents years of hard work by our teams, a huge amount of community involvement, and contributions from partners, developers and more, and is a great step forward,” added Cllr Pritchard.
“On behalf of the council and the development team I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the development of the plan so far.
“We’ll make further announcements in the coming months about how people can contribute to the next stage of the plan’s development.”
