Up to 45,000 new homes could be built across the four Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton over the next decade.

Four major sites have been earmarked to be developed around the garden city ideals of green spaces, well designed houses, energy efficiency and good links to public transport.

These are The Lye in Dudley, Dudley Port station in Sandwell, Willenhall in Walsall and the Canal Quarter in Wolverhampton.

Details of the plans will be rolled out by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership at the property show MIPIM in Cannes this week.

Work is expected to start on the first elements of the scheme this year on what is being billed as one of Britain’s biggest brownfield site regeneration schemes.

Two years ago, the coalition government announced plans to build three garden cities, one at Ebbsfleet in Kent and another at Bicester in Oxfordshire, but the third was not named.

Chris Handy, chief executive of the Accord Housing Group, and board member of Black Country LEP, said the regeneration body was anxious to work with house builders, developers and investors to accelerate the building of more new homes.

He said: “Not the since the Second World War has a Garden City been built on this scale or at this speed. It’s going to transform the perception of the Black Country and demonstrate to the rest of Britain that we are a region that is going places.”

Communities Secretary Greg Clarke said: “The Black Country Garden City symbolises the region’s ambition. It will deliver modern, new housing that will be a magnet for business investment, notably in advanced manufacturing and construction, which will boost the local economy and supply the houses local families want.”

The garden city is part of the region’s wider housing plan to build 85,000 new homes in the next 15 years.