PLANNING authorities need to help increase the low delivery rates of new housing in the North-East to help the regions economic growth, it was claimed.

Figures released yesterday by the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) and town planning and economics consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners (NLP) show up to 200,000 new homes will be needed across the North-East over the next 16 years, four times that previously predicted.

Both organisations have called on local authority planning departments to work with developers to speed up the house building process.

Their call was backed by Geoff Woodcock, operations director at County Durham based Esh Developments, who said: "We believe local authorities need to forget the restrictive planning policies of the past and work more closely with developers and housing associations to allow housing growth in areas where the industry is confident it can deliver."

NECC and NLP said that speeding up developments would provide much needed work for the regions construction industry as well as vital public funds, through the New Homes Bonus scheme, under which the Government gives local authorities the equivalent of council tax on each new home built to spend as they wish.

NECC and NLP claim official figures that 55,000 new homes are needed in the region by 2027 does not take into account economic growth.

They said that if the region instead builds 200,000 homes local authorities would be in line for a windfall of £1,252m from the New Homes Bonus scheme.

Andy Groves, NLP Senior Associate Director in Newcastle, said: "These figures highlight the potentially huge mismatch between housing demand and supply in the region and how important it is that local authorities focus on increasing delivery rates from their current low levels in order to house our population, create jobs and to support public finances."

In addition, NLP said that the region has a shortage of executive homes required to attract influential wealth creators who are critical in driving economic growth.

The NECC said that local authorities should embrace the opportunities this presents and work with developers to provide a pipeline of sites.

Ross Smith, head of policy at the NECC, said: "There are two things, obviously the most marked impact is the fact we need to maintain a thriving construction industry in the North-East.

"Part of that means having things to build, we know there is a need for greater housing over the coming years and if we want to provide that we need to make sure we are maintaining construction businesses that can thrive in the region.

"Secondly we need to make sure we can attract good people to live in the North-East, we have a lot to offer in terms of quality of life, the culture, the heritage of the area but part of that has to be housing and in particular we have a shortage of what is known as executive housing, good quality family housing towards the upper end of the market."