Work has begun to transform a former council depot site in Hinckley into an estate of 54 homes to help people looking to get on the housing ladder.
The properties will include 28 affordable, 20 shared ownership and six rent to buy dwellings, being built on land off Middlefield Lane, for Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA).
Vehicles will access the site off Middlefield Lane.
Becoming available from May 2020, the affordable rent homes will be let through Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s choice-based lettings scheme.
The sales team at NCHA will handle the sale of the shared ownership properties.
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council approved the scheme in February 2019, on the condition that the developer will have to provide two six-month bus passes for each home.
They will also have to pay more than £100,000 towards nearby open spaces and playgrounds and £27,000 towards the NHS.
A report for the council’s planning committee said: “The requirement therefore to provide 2,090 affordable dwellings by 2026 is not on track to being met and the proposed development of 54 dwellings with no market dwelling provision should be given significant weight as it would make a contribution towards meeting this identified need.”
The project was created through a working partnership between Countryside Properties, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and NCHA.
The collaboration was also behind a new development of 68 affordable homes on Southfield Road in the town, which opened in 2018.
This was built on the site of the derelict former Richard Roberts Dyers factory, breathing new life into an abandoned brownfield plot next to Hinckley railway station.
The 68 properties include 51 rented and 17 shared ownership tenures.
Previously, the council had considered developing the Middlefield Lane site with affordable homes through a development firm it had set up, but it was decided that the venture was not viable.
