A TARGET to build 60,000 new homes in Greater Nottingham over the next 16 years has today been scrapped.

The new coalition Government has announced it is to shelve the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) drawn up by the former Labour Government.

The strategy had outlined plans for 60,000 new homes to be built in Greater Nottingham by 2026.

In making the announcement, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the new Government wants to give local authorities "more freedom" on meeting housing needs in their areas.

A total of 13,860 homes were earmarked to be built in Rushcliffe borough, including 8,000 new homes on land east of Gamston and south of Clifton.

Campaigners in Rushcliffe opposed to the strategy welcomed the decision.

Paul Kaczmarczuk, chairman of Barton-in-Fabis Parish Council, said he was "absolutely delighted".

Mr Kaczmarczuk, who is also chairman of Rushcliffe Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, said: "We were anticipating it because both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives had pledged this in their manifestos.

"I am very, very pleased that now they are in office that is what they are doing.

"The devil will be in the detail with what they will replace it with. Certainly new houses will be built but hopefully there will be a lot more local democracy rather than bureaucrats forcing numbers on us."

New Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry also campaigned for the strategy to be scrapped.

Around 6,800 new homes were planned to be built in Broxtowe borough, with green belt sites around Stapleford and Toton earmarked for development.

Conservative MP Ms Soubry said: "I am very pleased that the Government has been true to its election promise.

"The problem in Broxtowe was always to fulfil the target, which was set at a ridiculously high level. The only way it could be met was to build on the green belt.

"Broxtowe Borough Council was told they had to meet this target but they found themselves with nowhere to go.

"There are still going to be thousands of new homes in Broxtowe.

"The council has already identified brown field sites for 4,000 homes – it's just the extra 3,000 which the strategy said had to be built and the only way it could have been met was to look at the green belt."

The Regional Spatial Strategy had also outlined plans for more than 4,000 new homes on sites around Hucknall.

Mark Spencer, the new Conservative MP for Sherwood, said: "Labour talked about conserving the green belt and gave us all these houses – and it has taken the Conservatives less than a month to say 'wait a minute, let's have a rethink'.

"It's too late for some decisions, but this gives us the opportunity to sit down with communities and engage and consult in a grown-up fashion on where do we want to develop and what type of accommodation do we want to build."

However, former Labour and Sherwood MP Paddy Tipping, who stood down at the General Election after 18 years in Parliament, raised concerns about how demand for housing in Notts will be met without the RSS in place.

He said: "It is clear that we need more houses all over Nottingham and Notts.

"Young people and working couples are finding it difficult to get houses.

"Part of the way of solving that is by building more houses and the Regional Spatial Strategy can help us to do that.

"Some local authorities, in particularly Rushcliffe, have been very slow in identifying sites for housing and it is things like the RSS that have moved them forward.

"Unless there is some kind of target I think the aspirations of many young people to get housing are not going to be met.

"I have always been in favour of some revisions to the RSS but if we want housing then a spatial strategy is one way of achieving it."