Bromsgrove District Council is falling well short of the target its has been set for new homes.

The local council has ended up more than 450 homes short in the last three years, having reached just 69% of its target.

One of the key reasons is the amount of green belt land in the district, which makes getting planning permission much harder.

The council is now being ordered to presume planning permission for developments that come before them.

But experts say they don’t expect the green belt to come under too much extra pressure.

As a whole, West Midlands councils have outperformed their targets set by the government, and in total have built around 160,000 against a target of 120,000.

But there are some notable exceptions, with Bromsgrove District Council delivering just 1,025 against a target of 1,493.

In percentage terms, it’s the third worst performance, behind Sandwell’s 49% and Ashfield’s 65%.

The details are revealed in the government’s annual Housing Delivery Test, a three-year rolling measure of house building.

Any council like Bromsgrove that fails to hit 75% of its government target must follow a policy of presuming approval for any sustainable planning applications.

That sounds like extra pressure to approve homes on green belt land to make up the shortfall.

But Jessica Graham, an associate at Savills regional estate agency in Birmingham, says it may not make that much difference.

“For the most part this will probably not result in a significant number of new sites being promoted through planning applications.

“Green Belt sites bring with them a whole range of planning policy and political challenges that need to be addressed and weighed against the presumption in favour of sustainable development in the tilted balance exercise. Therefore, the risks and costs associated with submitting a planning application for a Green Belt site still remain.

The council has been approached for a comment.