HAGLEY councillor Steve Colella is celebrating a government U-turn that will help safeguard the local countryside around the village.

The government had drawn up a strategy to build 300,000 new homes across the country which would have seen far more development on greenfield sites.

But after a “Tory shires’ rebellion by Conservative MPs in rural seats in the South of England, the strategy has switched to one focused on more housing on brownfield sites in cities in the West Midlands and the North.

That’s good news for Bromsgrove councillors serving villages like Hagley, Alvechurch, Barnt Green and Wythall who had feared communities being vastly increased in size with major housing estates.

“This is very good news, we are very pleased,” said Councillor Steve Colella, leader of the Independent group on Bromsgrove council.

The cities had more infrastructure to cope with extra houses, he said.

But he warned that the pressure for new homes would still be on.

“The strategy was just build, build, build. But now we can focus on producing not a housing plan, but a vision plan for communities – a collaborative strategy to put the right houses in the right places in the right numbers.”

It does mean the pressure now switches to places like the Black Country.

Ministers have allocated more than £67m in funding to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester authorities to deliver new homes.

Outside London, Birmingham is set to see the biggest increase in proposed building, with more than 1,200 additional new homes now expected on top of existing demand for 3,577 per year.