NEW figures have revealed Colchester is the fastest growing town or city in the east of England, but the supply of homes is struggling to keep up with demand.

According to the data, released by the business lending firm BLEND Network, the town’s population grew by 9.5 per cent between 2011 and 2017, an increase of roughly 16,600 people.

However, housebuilding in the town is only just keeping up with the expanding population, with 5,120 new homes being built over the same period, equivalent to one per three people. House prices also rose 51 per cent in seven years.

Colchester growth is considerably higher than many of its neighbours, with Tendring’s population increasing 4.6 per cent, Braintree’s 3.1 per cent and Maldon 3.7 per cent over the same period.

Leader of Colchester Council Mark Cory said: “A different administration over a decade ago signed us up to be a high growth area, and since then central government has continued to push high housing numbers upon us.

“Colchester has delivered housing, seeing families expand and stay in the town, but also new people have moved in.”

Gazette: Council leader Mark CoryCouncil leader Mark Cory

Mr Cory admitted infrastructure in the town had not kept up with the pace of house building and blamed developers, central government and Essex County Council.

“We are crying out for better roads, new schools and health care provision, even joined up cycle paths would be nice,” he said.

“Our infrastructure is creaking, which means two things - one, we need infrastructure to be delivered up front before any further big housing development and two, we need to do development differently and build proper sustainable and connected communities.”

Colchester Council’s Local Plan process has stalled, with further work being conducted on the north Essex authorities’ garden community plans, which could see 43,000 new homes built over the next 50 years.

Mr Cory said: “The process has been slowed to gather more evidence and to carry out further consultation work. Many residents are unaware of the position we are in and how development needs to be planned going ahead, we must continue to and improve upon engagement.”

But Rosie Pearson, secretary of the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex (Cause), said Colchester’s housing figures targets were of its own making.

She added: “Our councillors should both challenge the number and become more effective in getting the infrastructure funding we need.”

Gazette: Rosie Pearson, of CauseRosie Pearson, of Cause

Mrs Pearson said the garden communities would not solve the borough’s growth problems.

She said: “They are economically inefficient and will, therefore, generate even less money for infrastructure than balanced growth.

“There is no evidence the authorities can fund their promises. It is a double whammy - new problems created; existing problems not addressed.

“Instead, our planners need to go back to basics. Smaller and brownfield sites should get priority.

“They should focus on better collection of developer contributions, affordable housing via the Housing Revenue Account, and collection of a developer levy called the Community Infrastructure Levy. Residents should be listened to.”

BLEND Network analysed the population growth stats of 100 towns and cities in the UK using Office for National Statistics and official Government housing data.

Estimates say the country needs to build 300,000 new homes each year in order to combat the housing crisis.