Plans for up to 58,000 new homes across the West are being shelved after the Government scrapped its regional house-building targets, it has been revealed.

A report commissioned by the National Housing Federation (NHF) shows 11,000 fewer homes will be built in South Gloucestershire, 9,000 fewer in North Somerset and around 6,000 in both Bristol and Bath and north-east Somerset.

Councils across the region are drastically cutting back their housing plans following the coalition's move to axe regional spatial strategies.

The RSS for the South West would have imposed targets on all local authorities to create a specific number of new homes and jobs in their areas, with more than 500,000 new homes earmarked for the region over the next 20 years.

But a report for the NHF, by Bristol-based Tetlow King Planning, shows around 10 per cent of those planned homes have now been scrapped.

It comes just a week after the federation said young farmers and families were being forced out of their communities because of a lack of affordable housing.

NHF chief executive David Orr said: "With more than 4.5 million people on waiting lists, and 2.5 million people in overcrowded conditions, this is no time to downgrade the need for new homes.

"It is frankly disappointing that so many local authorities have decided to revise down the number of homes planned for their areas following the scrapping of the regional house-building targets."

The detailed report focused on the South West along with the South East and East of England. It showed plans for a total of 84,530 homes across the country had been scrapped.

The report looked at whether councils had formally announced plans to cut back their housing plans, and if it was as a direct result of a letter sent by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles on May 27 this year, in which he announced the Government's intention to scrap the spatial strategies.

The report showed a total of 11,500 homes in the South West had been axed following this letter, including:

Cotswold District Council – reduced its RSS target of 6,900 down to 6,000;

Bournemouth Borough Council – axed 1,500 dwellings from its target in its core strategy released last month;

Teignbridge District Council – is drafting plans to build 740 homes a year instead of 795, an overall cut of 1,100;

Exeter City Council – the RSS had set a 15,000 target, but this has now been cut to 12,000 in a draft of the council's core strategy released last month;

Torbay Council – a working party has agreed a baseline figure of 10,000 homes in its core strategy, down from the 15,000 suggested in the RSS.

The report also suggests many local authorities had already cut back their plans, in light of the Tories suggesting they would scrap spatial strategies if they came to power. This had led to a further 36,100 being axed from council targets, including:

Taunton Deane Borough Council – its core strategy now calls for 12,000-14,000 new homes, where the RSS had called for 18,000;

Bristol City Council – the council has been planning for 12 months to cut its target by 6,000, and Mr Pickles' letter is now forming part of its justification;

Bath and North East Somerset Council – a consultation in November last year set out the council's intention to build 15,500 homes, down from the 21,300 in the RSS;

North Somerset Council – had planned to cut its allocation by 9,000 homes, and targets will be reviewed further;

South Gloucestershire Council – RSS suggested a figure of 32,800 homes but the council is now consulting on plans for 21,500.

The report added: "A further 10,400 dwelling are likely to be reduced from various targets and five more authorities were likely to reduce targets, but there was insufficient evidence or information to ascertain what this might be.

"In total, 17 of the 38 local authorities surveyed in the South West are either officially or unofficially reducing housing targets below the RSS level.

"Including unofficial estimates and official announcements, the total reduction in housing targets is 58,000 dwellings, nearly 10 per cent of the regional target for the South West in the emerging RSS."

Mr Orr added: "Local authorities need to recognise that just because regional targets have gone, housing need has not. To prevent a slump in the number of desperately needed new homes, the Government should replace the regional planning system with transitional arrangements as a matter of urgency."