PROPOSALS to build 7,000 new homes to stop residents moving out of a North-East town are being unveiled. 

The Local Plan will be considered at a meeting of Middlesbrough Council next Wednesday before submission for Government approval.

It represents its biggest house building programme for 40 years focusing on regeneration zones at Middlehaven, Gresham and Grove Hill.

It will also feature thousands of new homes planned by 2029 including 1,000 on land south of Coulby Newham, 1,700 properties as well as a primary school and a country park and 250 new homes with a park at land south of Guisborough Road in Nunthorpe.

The plan will then be subject to a public examination by a planning inspector, with formal adoption by the council possibly taking place in the autumn.

Councillor Charlie Rooney, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “It is critical to Middlesbrough’s future economic prosperity that we address the current housing balance and create communities where future generations want to live.

“This plan allows us to control and shape the developments the town undoubtedly needs, while ensuring our new neighbourhoods will be well designed and landscaped.

“Middlesbrough continues to be the economic engine room of the Tees Valley, and we must bring forward the sort of housing that reflects that over the next 15 years and beyond.”