MORE than 1,000 houses could be built in Blackburn with Darwen over each of the next five years after the council missed its targets.

Figures show almost 2,000 fewer properties have been built in the borough than the borough’s local plan target over the last seven years.

In order to meet its target, 3,900 homes should have been built since 2011/12, but just 1,940 had been completed by the end of March this year.

And the council will review its Local Plan to help meet targets.

Bosses were aiming to have 625 homes built each year for the next three years and 720 per year for the following two years - a total of 3,315 by the end of 2022/23.

But the shortfall means an average of 908 homes should be built over the next five years - a total of 4,540.

The Government’s National Planning Policy Framework requires local planning authorities with a record of persistent under-delivery of housing to apply a 20 per cent buffer to their housing requirements to provide a realistic prospect of achieving the planned supply and to ensure choice and competition in the market for land.

Adding the buffer means 1,090 homes per year are needed until the end of 2022/23.

In a report to go before the planning and highways committee next week, deputy chief executive Denise Park said action would need to be taken to meet demand.

“ Existing development sites are progressing at pace, and there is a particular shortage of allocated employment land,” she said.

“There is an urgent need for the consideration of the early release of the sites which are currently allocated for development beyond 2026, such as the North East Blackburn housing site, the allocation of the former Pleasington Lakes site for housing and the creation of a strategic employment site at Guide to the south of the M65 between junctions 4 and 5.

“An updated Local Plan is essential to allow these sites to be released for development.”

Earlier this year, work began to clear at least 160,000 tonnes of illegally-dumped waste on the Pleasington Lakes site as new owners hope to develop it, previously earmarked for a golf course and then a holiday village, for housing.

Black Pearl Homes, which bought the land last November, dropped the scheme for a log cabin holiday village by previous owners Castleland Ltd, dating from 2007.