BASILDON is set for a new housing target having not sorted out its plans for the last one.

Councils which completed local plans know how many homes they need to allocate space for with the next decade arranged.

Those who haven’t, such as Basildon, face thousands of extra homes being added until they complete it.

Basildon Council was required to identify sites for 20,000 but has failed to do so.

It is feared continued failure will see this rise to at least 21,400 and possibly as high as 24,000.

However the council is going backwards and now has less slots identified than it did three months ago.

The Ministry of Housing released the new target on Tuesday and intends to review it further in September.

Labour councillor Gavin Callaghan said: “We are under pressure now to get this local plan submitted by January 24 next year which is going to be a real challenge given the recent actions of the Conservatives who have rolled back our plan making process to move a handful of homes out of Billericay.”

Labour leader Adele Brown added: “The clock is now ticking until we will have to take at least an additional 1,400 homes and likely more.

“Who knows what the minister for housing, communities and local Government has planned for us?

“Intervention from central Government is a real possibility in Basildon and at that point the situation will become a lot worse than where we are today.”

The local plan had numerous setbacks and the Government threatened the council with intervention in November last year.

A plan was eventually agreed under a Labour-led administration in March, but the Tories chose to reject the plan when they took control of the council in May.

At the end of June, council leader Andrew Baggot met with the director of planning at the ministry of housing and assured the Government the council will hit their January deadline.

Tory councillors also accused Labour of “scaremongering” claiming the plan will be completed without problems.