Housing targets in parts of the Black Country and Staffordshire are set to more than double in planning shake up

In Dudley alone the number of projected properties has more than doubled from 675 homes to 1,462 under new projections by the  Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. 

In Walsall 1,148 new homes will be needed an increase from 906.

In Sandwell 1,346 homes will be needed a decrease from the 1,550 previously earmarked.

In Wolverhampton 1,086 will be needed a decrease from  the 1,096 previously earmarked.

But in parts of Staffordshire the figures have also more than doubled. In Stafford 751 new homes will be needed an increase from the 358  previously earmarked for the borough.

In Cannock Chase 518 will be needed in an increase from 248 homes  previously earmarked for the district. While in Lichfield the number has tripled with 745 new home needed in an increase from the 289 previously earmarked.

Mr Pennycook said the targets will need to be met under a shake up of  planning rules will see councils given mandatory targets to deliver the construction of properties. 

“There is a series of escalating steps we can take bearing down on performance. But in extremis, I want to be very clear about this, the Government can take a local plan off a local authority that is resisting putting one in place, and we are absolutely willing to do it, if we have evidence that individual local planning authorities are refusing to comply.

“Refusing to allow their communities, their residents, to shape development in the way that best suits them in a given area – we are willing to step in if that happens.”

He urged councils to “exhaust all your options” to meet the goal, including releasing the “right parts” of protected greenbelt land.

And pledged that town halls will get Government support to put plans in place, but that “recalcitrant authorities” that refuse to comply with the new policy could face the “full range of ministerial intervention power”.

Earlier this year Dudley Council's Conservative leader Councillor Patrick Harley criticised the plans describing them as "stupid".

 “What idiot came up with this it is plain stupid, they will have to reverse this.

“Going up by 143 per cent – we can’t do that, you would have to build a home over every blade of grass on our greenbelt and we still wouldn’t satisfy these numbers unless we put 12-storey flats everywhere,” Councillor Harley said. 

Across the West Midlands region in total 29,940 more homes will be required to be built including 4,448 in Birmingham,  1,994 in Shropshire and 857 in Telford & Wrekin.