City living in Birmingham is set to be repackaged for a new generation of aspirational families.

Plans to develop more two and three-bedroom apartments in the booming retail and entertainment core have been proposed by city council planners.

They aim to breathe more life into the centre at weekends and inject a degree of 'sustainability' into city living.

Officers at the local a uthority have been instructed to carry out a study into how developers can be persuaded to build larger apartments, rather than traditional one-bedroom city centre flats.

Tiny apartments have sprung up all over the city centre in recent years with the growth of Birmingham's professional sector.

However, Birmingham's planning boss Councillor David Roy ordered the study into exploring a new wave of city-living following a site visit by the committee.

Coun Roy said the group came across one block near the Chinese Quarter that was occupied by only nine people - and only six of the residents were on the electoral register.

Coun Roy (Con Sutton Vesey) told committee members: "I would like your support to instruct the officers to do a study on one-bedroomed flats, especially in the city centre. It has become a worry for us as we have more and more city living, we have a lot of applications for single-bedroom flats which do not encourage families which we would like to see.

"It was quite noticeable that when we went to Upper Dean Street there was a fairly new block there and there were six people on the electoral register who lived there. This supports my view on city living.

"If we are going to do something on these sorts of developments our powers are limited because of market forces.

"All I am asking is that we ought to put this study in motion. The Government will come to talk to us and give us a lot of statistics, but we will need to get some more information to support the view that possibly we all share."

The committee voted unanimously to back the new study. Opposition spokesman Coun Mike Nangle (Lab Hodge Hill) said it was not before time.

Coun Nangle said: "We have gone along with a rash of one-bed flat developments but there is virtually nothing at all for families. Suddenly the penny seems to have dropped that people want a front door, a back door and a garden."

The new proposals look set to rolled out against a background of rising interest rates, which are likely to climb again in the near future.

This had led to a spate of repossessions, particularly among buy-to-let investors who have failed to find tenants for one-bedroom flats.

However, the buy-to-let market is still buoyant despite the Bank of England's three interest rate rises since August.

Solihull-based Paragon, a buy-to-let lender, recently claimed to have completed 30 per cent more buy-to-let mortgages in its first half trading than during the same period last year.

A report by Alliance & Leicester and the Centre of Future Studies also predicts that the rental sector will grow by 40 per cent by 2016.

Planning committee member Coun Renee Spector (Lab Erdington) said families were needed to create a more sustainable city centre.

She said: "Currently, very often these buildings are left vacant. If they do live in the apartments, they do not have very much affection for the place.

"They would only live in them for short periods of time and would often leave at the weekend."