Almost 7,000 houses have got to be built in the borough by 2026 and Broxtowe Borough Council has to find suitable locations for them.

Leader of the council, Cllr Milan Radulovic, said one of the proposals was to "re-locate a company and most of an industrial area" in the north of the borough to make way for housing, but at this stage he would not give any more details. The exact location would be unveiled at a later date.

So far 1,035 houses have been built across Broxtowe and Cllr Radulovic said 1,500 would probably be built in and around Awsworth, Brinsley, Eastwood, Kimberley and Watnall.

In 2000, planning permission was granted to build 500 properties on Chewton Street, Hall Lane and Walker Street in Eastwood, but no developments have ever gone ahead, which means councillors working on the huge housing scheme are having to build more in the Eastwood and Kimberley area than they initially thought.

Cllr Radulovic said: "Building work has not gone ahead for various reasons, including the recession, but it has meant that we have had to up the figure for housing in the north of the borough."

"At the minute we are looking at a potential 1,500. There's been various plans put forward and various ideas but I want to make sure it's all part of a public consultation so it's not all about councillors discussing it behind closed doors."

The council's cabinet decided on the public consultation when it met to discuss the project onTuesday, January 26. It will start on February 15 and last for eight weeks.

The first public consultation was last summer, but Cllr Radulovic said that was just a very brief consultation on the principle of the schemes and councillors now wanted serious detailed responses.

Possible sites in the south of the borough include Stapleford, Toton and Trowell.

In June last year, it was revealed a lot of the houses would have to go on greenfield sites due to a lack of space.

The Government sets quotas for the number of homes it wants local authorities to build across the country to meet housing needs.

Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire were identified as areas of growth because of the M1 and railway links.