COLCHESTER could be forced to build almost double the amount of houses each year under new Government planning rules, new analysis shows.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s Planning for the Future White Paper is set to bring about huge changes to the planning system in a bid to rip up the red tape in the planing system.

The White Paper also proposes replacing how housing need is calculated to a nationally-set method distributing 300,000 homes per annum across the UK.

Planning consultants Lichfields has calculated how much each area is likely to need to build under the new rules.

Colchester’s housing requirement could rise to 1,612, the highest number across Hertfordshire and Essex.

The current requirement set out in Colchester’s Local Plan is 920 homes per year, although the borough has delivered an average of 1,045 homes over the last three years according to Lichfields.

North Essex as a whole - Colchester, Tendring, Chelmsford and Braintree - could need to build 5,086 per year under the new method.

Colchester is already ranked as the fastest growing town in the east of England, as well as one of the fastest growing the country.

Mike Lilley, planning boss at Colchester Council, said the new figures were worrying.

He said: “The worry is now this is being changed is we will have to build the new total or get penalised by the Government.

“It looks like this paper will take away power from councils. We do listen to residents and let them have their say but these proposals will be a free for all for developers.

“None of the proposals help anybody apart from housing developers. This paper will make things worse and we will be building far too many houses.”

The Government is also proposing changes to the way developers pay for infrastructure with a new levy set at a fixed proportion of the value of the development.

Colchester Council leader Mark Cory added: “I understand residents are already concerned about housing growth. If the Government’s plans go through we will have to make huge efforts to push back against overdevelopment.”

To view Lichfields' research, click here.

What have campaigners said?

PLANNING campaigners have labelled the Government’s proposed new housing figures for Colchester “ludicrous” and “unachievable”.

Rosie Pearson, formerly of the Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex, said although the numbers can’t come into play whilst the Local Plan is being examined, there was rightfully concern about the new figures.

Mrs Pearson said: “The new methodology proposed by Government results in some quite frankly ludicrous and almost certainly unachievable new housing targets for many Essex councils, including Colchester.

“The problem with the formula is it works backwards from Government’s desire to build 337,000 new homes per annum.

“It is unlikely that developers would build this number of homes a year in Colchester anyway, but there is no way the borough could absorb this level of growth, with its associated loss of green space and the stress on the infrastructure.”

She added: “Essex council leaders should unite and say to Government the targets are impossible to meet and that the new method needs to be rethought.

“There is a simple way of doing this, which is to remove the escalator in the formula which creates such ridiculous targets.”