Building work has commenced on a development to provide much-needed affordable homes in a Wiltshire village.

Jephson Homes Housing Association is building seven houses at Sutton Lane, Sutton Benger, to help local people in housing need. 

The homes are being built on land which has been designated a rural exception site, meaning that only affordable housing can be built there if a local housing need is identified.

Jephson has appointed E.G. Carter & Company Limited as its contractor to build the scheme which includes a cluster of two, three and four-bedroom houses for social rent. Works are due to be completed by the end of January 2011.

The scheme attracted support from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Wiltshire Council to enable the new homes to be built. Jephson secured funding of £385,000 from the HCA and £225,000 from Wiltshire Council.

Representatives of Jephson, Wiltshire Council and the contractor gathered at the site last Thursday (August 12) to mark the start of the building works.

Emma Hardman, Senior Development Officer at Jephson, said: “We are very excited about this development, which will provide much-needed affordable homes for local people.

“As with all rural exception sites, a lot of hard work was put in up front in order to successfully achieve a planning permission that carefully addressed the sensitive issues often associated with these sites.”