The Government U-turn on a major increase in housebuilding across Teignbridge has been welcomed by Dawlish town councillors.

At the town council meeting yesterday evening (Wednesday, January 6), the deputy mayor Val Mawhood drew attention to the change in policy, announced by the communities minister Robert Jenrick before Christmas.

She said: "We were liable to be having our housing numbers doubled for Teignbridge, so I'm really relieved to see that's happened."

Councillor Gary Taylor, deputy chairman of the planning committee, said: "There's been a U-turn by the Government on housing numbers.

"The new algorithm that would have imposed 1,532 houses a year on Teignbridge has been binned just before Christmas.

"I personally can't think of a better Christmas present from Mr Jenrick and I'm as pleased as I can be about the numbers we're returning to.

"The formula now reverts to the original one and the data point moves on 12 months, so instead of 760 (new homes) we have a reduction to 758."

Read more about the original Government proposals Government scraps plan to increase new housebuilding targets