Thousands more homes will need to be built across parts of Somerset as the government is set to more than double the area’s housing target.

Bath & North East Somerset Council had already been looking at how it could find space for 725 new homes to be built in the district every year — the amount it had been ordered to build by the Conservatives.

In order to hit the target, the council was considering building a new village near Bath — a plan met with shock by the award-winning zero carbon farm the village would be built on.

But now the area will have to accommodate twice as many homes again, with the new Labour government set to increase the target to 1,466 homes a year amid changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF). The target will run for 15 years, meaning 21,990 new homes will have to be built across Bath and North East Somerset by 2040.

The council had been consulting on its new local plan, the document that sets out its planning policies and where new developments should go for the next 15 years. Now it faces having to factor twice as many homes into the plan.

Matt McCabe, the council’s cabinet member for built environment, housing, and sustainable development, said: “Here in B&NES, we are committed to delivering the right homes in the right places, and homes that are genuinely affordable. We also have an aspiration to be building hundreds of council homes every year. So, I welcome any changes that help us deliver on our priorities.”

Meanwhile in neighbouring North Somerset, where a huge amount of new development is already underway next to Weston-super-Mare, the council had been told by the Conservative government that it needed to build 20,000 new homes across the next 15 years. Councillors battled to get the number down to 14,985 but now the Labour government has told it to find space for 23,805.

Councillor Mark Canniford, North Somerset Council’s executive member who is responsible for spatial planning, placemaking and economy, said: “The government’s planning reforms have major implications for our proposed Local Plan.

“The new standard method is 23,805 dwellings in North Somerset over the next 15 years – that’s nearly 9,000 dwellings more than our current Local Plan target. This figure also doesn’t take into account the needs of our neighbours, as the government has asked all councils to work together to jointly address unmet need.

“In light of this, we will not be proceeding with our planned final consultation on the Local Plan. We’re working hard to review our draft plan in the light of the government’s announcements, and hope to progress this as quickly as we can.

“We want to create a Local Plan that also reflects the needs of our environment. Around 85 per cent of our land is at risk from flooding, part of the Mendip Hills landscape, high-quality Green Belt or protected in other ways for environmental or heritage reasons. This is a practical geographic constraint on the amount of development that’s possible in North Somerset.

“New homes also need to be supported with the right infrastructure, so communities have access to the services they want and need. We want to make sure that infrastructure challenges are being met before we consider further development.

“We appreciate that this has been a long process. It’s really important that we get our Local Plan right, as this will shape development in our area for the next 15 years. Thank you to our residents for your patience, and to our officers for their continued hard work.”