Work has started on a £310,000 Mansfield District Council scheme to turn an under-used tenants’ meeting room into three council homes.

Supported by a grant of £65,384 from Homes England, the property in Bamford Drive, Mansfield, will be converted into one two-bedroom house, one three-bedroom house and a one-bedroom bungalow suitable for a wheelchair user.

The homes are among the first of 300 new council homes planned for the district over the next four years.

The grant from Homes England, under its Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme, will enable the council to support other schemes within its £51.9m housing programme.

The funding for the Bamford Drive scheme comprises:

Homes England – £65,384
Section 106 funding – £75,000
Better Care Fund – £35,000
Recycled Capital Grant – £24,166
The net cost to the council is £110,450 based on the projected final cost.

Coun Marion Bradshaw (pictured), Portfolio Holder for Housing, said: “It is fantastic news that work has begun on building additional affordable council housing in the district.

“The new Local Plan, which the council hopes to adopt later this year, says that the district needs 6,500 new homes by 2033. The council’s development programme will help this area to meet that target and it also aligns the council’s priorities for Growth, Place, Aspiration and Health and Wellbeing.

“As this district has a higher-than-average proportion of people with disability, mobility and long-term health conditions, we are pleased that one of the homes in this particular scheme will be suitable for a wheelchair user.”

The council’s housing programme will be built in line with the authority’s climate change agenda by being sustainable and energy efficient. The construction work will also, where possible, provide employment and training opportunities for local people.

Previously, Government caps on borrowing limited the amount councils could borrow to build new homes. Recently relaxed rules on loans have now allowed the council to borrow against its property assets to expand its rented housing stock further.

The schemes include at least 100 new homes in an expansion of the council’s acclaimed Poppy Fields development for older people, and an estimated 80 homes through acquisition, development and renovation, as part of a masterplan for the town centre and other strategic sites.