Almost 100,000 new homes could be built in Sussex during the next two decades.

The target, agreed at a meeting of the South East England Regional Assembly yesterday, means the county would grow at an average rate of 4,800 homes a year.

West Sussex would receive the biggest share of homes - 58,000. This works out at an average of 2,900 a year from 2006 to 2026.

East Sussex has been set a target of 38,000 - or 1,900 a year.

Within the headline targets, more than half of all the new homes have been allocated to a narrow strip of land that stretches along the coast and includes the major urban areas.

This so-called sub region, known as Sussex Coast, runs from Bognor to Rye and includes Worthing, Brighton and Hove, Eastbourne and Hastings.

The area, which is considered in most urgent need of additional housing, would receive 54,000 homes - 2,700 a year.

Yesterday's meeting, in Winchester, agreed that the whole South-East region, which runs north to Oxfordshire and west to Kent, but excludes London, should accept a total of 578,000 new homes from 2006 to 2026.

This is an average of 28,900 homes a year.

The targets will now be submitted to the Government as part of the draft South East plan, a blueprint to manage the growth and development of the region to secure its economic success over the next two decades.

The regional total could have been even higher than the one agreed.

Don Turner, deputy chairman of the regional assembly, supported an unsuccessful attempt to increase the annual growth to 32,000.

Councillor Turner, who is also chairman of Brighton and Hove City Council's housing committee, said it was possible the Government could impose a higher housing target for the region if it felt the assembly had not gone far enough.

He said: "The figure we agreed is too low because it will not meet the demand and will do nothing to improve the economy.

"The Government may well impose higher figures because of the lack of evidence to support this low figure."

The next stage of the process will be to agree local targets for individual authorities.

The distribution of housing targets between the three councils will be the subject of public consultation before final figures are submitted to the regional assembly in December.

The finished plan will be submitted for Government approval next spring, after which it becomes a legal document that local authorities and other Government agencies in the region will have to follow.

Thursday, July 14, 2005