A HEALTH watchdog said it still needs to be reassured the county's hospitals and doctor's surgeries will be able to cope in the face of 14,000 new homes being built in the next 20 years.

A draft update of the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) - which sets out a blueprint for where homes, offices and other developments could be built up in the future - revealed plans to build 14,000 by 2041.

Peter Pinfield, chairman of Healthwatch Worcestershire, said the watchdog needed reassurances that sufficient infrastructure would be in place before any developer started building houses.

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He said: "The plans would have a real impact on local health services. The number of homes that are being built is part of a national requirement. We will have to make sure we have the infrastructure in place.

"Thousands of homes will mean a real change for the county. It all adds up.

"I think there needs to be a 'quid pro quo' approach that means if they are going to have more homes we must have the facilities or the money for the facilities also and if not I think we have to starting asking the local MPs to intervene to make sure the housebuilding comes with more services."

The 14,000 extra homes would be on top of the 28,370 already assigned to be built in the current SWDP.

The revised document is vague on details around new hospitals and doctor's surgeries but does reference the need for new facilities at the major expansions such as the 5,000 home village near Worcestershire Parkway and the 2,000 plan at Throckmorton Airfield near Pershore.

The document states the population would increase by around 32,200 people because of the plans and it was "uncertain" how much it would affect services such as GP surgeries and schools.

The revised SWDP includes a new 5,000 home village next to the soon-to-open Worcestershire Parkway station, an extra 1,000 homes in Rushwick and thousands of homes across Droitwich, Evesham, Malvern and Pershore.