A bumper selection of council homes will be built across various boroughs in Sandwell, subject to planning permission.

Documents to build council homes in Rowley Regis, Smethwick and West Bromwich were discussed at a council cabinet meeting.

The majority of the council homes will be financed as ‘affordable rent’, which are up to 80 per cent of market rent.

There are currently over 9,800 people on the Sandwell council’s housing register, of which approximately a third are existing tenants requesting property transfers.

Areas earmarked for new council homes include land in Higham’s Close, Rowley Regis, which will get twelve properties, evenly split between six four-bedroom semi-detached houses, and six four-bedroom detached houses. 

It comes as an additional document was presented to the cabinet, entitled ‘Council House New Build Programme’, which detailed a new strategic approach to council home building. It includes utilising Homes England grants and Right to Buy 1-4-1 replacements.

But the report also admitted many of the plans, including the aforementioned areas of land for council homes, had yet to be fully costed.

It noted: “As many of the schemes do not have detailed design and planning permission assumptions have been made on the number of units delivered so an element of over programming has been included. 

“On schemes yet to gain approval once detailed design is complete and there is more clarity on the actual costs of the developments and the number of units to be built a strategic financial appraisal will be undertaken. 

“There is therefore, a risk that schemes may not be able to proceed.”

Councillor Charn Singh Padda, cabinet member for housing, said: “This proposal will provide new high-quality affordable housing stock that will contribute to replacing the council housing lost the right to buy by developing vacant underutilised land. I recommend that this report is approved in line with the recommendations.”