Developers will be made to pay for the thousands of extra homes due to be built on greenfield sites in West Sussex.

Residents will be told that major new construction schemes between now and 2016 will bring improved services, including new roads and jobs to the county.

Senior council officers had admitted the 46,500 homes which will be built over the next 15 years are more than they wanted.

But a new structure plan which is being issued for public consultation says it will bring economic benefits to many areas.

The housing figure brings to an end a long dispute with the Government over planning policies which began when Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott rejected an earlier set of figures.

The council now says that it has no choice but to draw up a structure plan to match new regional housing guidance issued by the Government earlier this year.

A series of locations where new homes will be allowed has been drawn up by the council. But the precise sites will now be for district and borough councils to pinpoint.

A senior council source said the council was producing an overall strategy and not identifying actual fields where homes will be built.

He added: "A clearly determined framework will help stop an open season for developers."

Many of the new homes included in the structure plan are already being built or have been committed.

The county council is making it clear that it will use the system of contributions which have to be made by developers to pay for major improvements and any new road schemes.