BASINGSTOKE and Deane will be expected to make room for up to 16,200 new homes over the next 20 years.

The borough is one of four areas in Hampshire where even more houses will have to be built than had been proposed in the South East Plan, the blueprint for development in the region up to 2026.

Government-appointed inspectors yesterday published a report recommending several revised house-building levels following a four-month public inquiry into the plan earlier this year.

They have recommended an extra 6,300 homes for Hampshire above the 122,000 already required in the plan, including an extra 1,400 for Basingstoke and Deane, which had already pledged to build 14,800.

East Hampshire, Test Valley and Winchester are the other areas in the county to be recommended for increases.

The report will now go to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government who is expected to make a decision next year.

Responding to the new figures, Basingstoke MP Maria Miller said the Government needed to change the way it approached planning and should not assume building more homes would bring house prices down.

She added: "What we have to have is, very simply, house-building to go hand-in-hand with infrastructure investment. I think we also have to make sure that it is locally that we determine the rate of growth of our town and where that growth happens.

"At the moment all these targets are set by diktat by a Government that does not know Basingstoke and what Basingstoke needs."

Hampshire County Council leader Councillor Ken Thornber said Hampshire could not cope with more housing unless the Government puts money into infrastructure such as roads, sewerage, health services and social services.

He added: "Irrespective of what the Government tells us we should build, I want to make it clear that Hampshire intends to hold back a proportion of these houses in reserve and only release them after 2016 if it is clear that these new houses are still needed and that services like water supply and sewerage treatment can be provided."

The South East England Regional Assembly, which drafted the South East Plan and agreed its housing figures, accepted the recommendations but echoed calls for more investment in infrastructure.

Assembly chairman Cllr Keith Mitchell said: "Infrastructure costing £89billion was central to our original plans to make sure new homes have good transport, schools, parks and water supplies.

"But obviously that bill will now rise to meet demand from extra homes and deliver much-needed affordable housing."