A housing developer says there is no demand for flats in Norwich, as blueprints for almost 50,000 homes are examined.

Matthew Spry, speaking on behalf of home builder Halsbury Homes, raised concerns about the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP) - a document that will identify where thousands of homes should be built across Norwich and surrounding areas.

Mr Spry made the comments on the third day of a series of government Planning Inspectorate hearings to examine the plan.

He said the company had looked at the median price of properties, including apartments, from 2007 to 2021, which showed prices had increased by 34pc, except flats and apartments which had increased by 0pc.

“Apartments now have the same value as 15 years ago before the financial crisis, for that type of product, at a time when both nationally and in Norwich has increased significantly," he said.

“We say that says something significant about the lack of demand for apartments and certainly a lack of demand to support the scale of development that the plan envisages.”

Mike Burrell a GNLP representative, disputed Mr Spry's comments, he said flat schemes have been delivered across the city, including near Carrow Road.

“There’s likely to be more demand in the future as the age of the population increases, there’s more demand for flats in the city centre for older people.”

Mr Burrell added that he would have to look into whether flat prices had stagnated and questioned the sample size of Mr Spry’s information.