Cheshire East Conservatives are calling on the council's leaders to write to deputy PM Angela Rayner seeking a reduction in the authority's housing target.

The council no longer has a five-year housing land supply since the changes to the national planning policy framework (NPPF) introduced by the Labour government last year.

A notice of motion put forward by Conservative group leader Stewart Gardiner to next week's meeting of Cheshire East's full council, acknowledges there is a national need for additional housing.

But it says: "The changes to the NPPF introduced by the Labour government have significantly increased the housing targets for Cheshire East from 977 dwellings per annum (dpa) to 2461 dpa, an uplift of more than 250 per cent.

"The scale of the increased housing targets is such that the council's land supply has fallen well below that required to meet the revised five-year requirement."

Cllr Gardiner said this increase should be seen against a backdrop of housebuilding targets in other areas of the country, which have performed less well than Cheshire East Council, but are being reduced.

He said the scale of the increase in housing targets, without allowing councils like Cheshire East a reasonable time to adjust to the new target, undermines the policies set out in existing local and neighbourhood plans.

"The fact that this council now has a less than five-year housing land supply enables developers to, once again, submit speculative applications outside of existing settlement boundaries, even within the green belt, otherwise than in accordance with existing local and neighbourhood plans with an expectation that those applications will be approved, if necessary, on appeal," he said in the motion.

"As a consequence of the council no longer having a five-year land supply, communities are being deprived of the opportunity to help shape the future of their neighbourhoods."

The motion, which is seconded by Cllr Steve Edgar, calls on council leader Nick Mannion (Lab) and deputy Michael Gorman (Ind) to write jointly to Angela Rayner, in her role as Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government, to seek a reduction in the housing target.

It also requests the council leaders ask for 'the creation of a reasonable period of grace within which any shortfall in the council's land supply may be set aside allowing the full weight of existing local or neighbourhood plans to be applied'.