Budget hotel chain Travelodge says it is hoping to work with Birmingham City Council and a host of other local authorities in the West Midlands to find new sites for hotels.

The group is contacting 209 councils across the UK to extend a programme in which hotels are built on surplus local authority land.

The authorities in turn help with funding and also having the chance to own the property and receive an annual rent.

This type of arrangement has already seen the former Royal Brierley Crystal factory site in Dudley regenerated to house a 78-bedroom Travelodge.

The venue opened in September and created 27 jobs - one of seven such projects completed by the hotel group over the past three years.

Among the other West Midlands councils the group is hoping to work with are Coventry, Lichfield, Redditch, Shropshire, Solihull, Warwick and Worcestershire.

Travelodge chief executive Peter Gowers said: "More and more local authorities are under pressure to find ways to help regenerate their historic town centres and local communities.

"Adding a low-cost hotel like Travelodge is an increasingly attractive choice as it draws visitors, creates jobs and helps boost the local economy.

"Our customers are travelling more frequently and we are opening new hotels to ensure we are in locations where they want to be.

"We are looking for more sites to drive our expansion programme and we are writing to more than 200 other local authorities, to invite them to consider how Travelodge can act as a catalyst to drive their local development agenda."

Travelodge is planning to add a further 200 hotels to its portfolio over the next decade and said it believed working in partnership with local councils was a key route to deliver this aim.