Green belt land around Sutton Coldfield and in the Redditch and Bromsgrove areas could be in the firing line to meet demand for new homes, according to a city planning expert.

Peter Leaver, national planning director for Jones Lang LaSalle in Birmingham, said the city centre could not deliver the number and quality of new homes required.

“Locally, Birmingham City Council is due to publish the preferred option to its development plan this Autumn, started under the previous leadership and it is believed it offers good news for developers.

“The plan is thought to be more pro-growth, pushing for greater housing and recognising the need to look outside the main conurbation to deliver targets and good quality new homes.

“This will mean green belt land to the North-East of the city around Sutton Coldfield and to the South-West towards Redditch and Bromsgrove will have to be considered.

“Development in the city centre simply can’t deliver the number and quality of new homes required and developers are looking to the lusher greenfield sites to realise new profits for their business, creating larger family homes after having their fingers so badly burnt in the city-living, brownfield apartment era.

“For many residents in target greenfield sites these proposals are going to ring alarm bells. In the nineties and noughties there was a huge backlash to back garden grabbing as people pushed to conserve their surburban spaces, but if you don’t allow that to happen clearly something has got to give.

“A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation(JRF) says that 750,000 homes are required by 2015 and even if every government policy and scheme succeeds, we will still have a shortfall of 310,000 by the end of that period.