New wave of house building signalled

Work on the 350 homes will start by December in what Ministers hail as a break from the past 30 years where few council properties have been built.

Housing Minister John Healey said many of the homes will be built alongside private housing as the Government seeks to move away from creating large council estates.

Almost half of the homes will be family properties, and most will also be built to exacting green standards.

"This announcement signals a new style of council housing that adds to the mixed make-up of local neighbourhoods," said Mr Healey, MP for Wentworth. "Forty per cent of the homes being built will be three and four-bedroom family homes which are designed to high energy efficiency standards and will often be built alongside existing private housing."

Between them, local authorities in the East Riding, Hull, Kirklees, Rotherham, Sheffield, Barnsley, Bradford, York

and Doncaster will build 345 homes with the Government funding.

It is the second wave of council homes the Government has funded as part of a 1.5bn package of housing measures designed to keep house building going during the slump.

About 60m which had been earmarked to kickstart stalled private developments has been transferred into the council housing pot to help fund yesterday's announcement.

In order to secure the Government funding, councils have made commitments to create apprenticeships and use local labour.

Mr Healey is expected to unveil a shake-up of the council house funding system next month to incentivise local authorities to build more homes in the future.