WORCESTERSHIRE County Council will have its say on plans that could see up to 62,300 homes built across the county when it meets with other councils next month.

The meeting will set out to discuss what will be Worcestershire's preferred option for the regional spatial strategy - a blueprint of how the region will grow in terms of housing, employment, transport and public services in the next 20 years.

We previously reported that there are three options on the table as to how many homes will be built across the county between 2011 and 2026.

Option one, based on current building trends, would see an extra 31,100 homes; option two, put forward by Worcestershire County Council, would see an extra 47,300; while option three - what the Government thinks we need - would see 62,300 extra homes built.

In Worcester, up to 7,200 extra homes could be built under option one, 11,800 option two, and 16,800 option three.

Exactly where the homes will be built has not yet been decided.

The county council will host a pre-meeting discussion with district council colleagues who also sit on the regional planning partnership at County Hall on Wednesday, July 18, before Councillor Simon Geraghty, cabinet member for planning, and Mark Middleton, head of planning, meet with representatives from the West Midlands Regional Assembly and other county councils to discuss the preferred option.

Mr Middleton said: "The regional partnership has laid out how it wants to respond to the next round of consultation, and that means drawing up a draft preferred option when it meets again on July 20.

"From a Worcestershire point of view, we will be making sure we all sing from the same hymn sheet before we meet colleagues from other counties and the conurbations to discuss the way forward."

A final preferred option will have to be approved in October and given to the Government in December.