A SCHEME to build an estate solely of affordable housing has been warmly welcomed by a council which has voiced frustration over the difficulties in getting below market value properties built.

Members of Hambleton District Council’s planning committee said Broadacres Housing Association’s proposal for 72 homes in Northallerton would help more local people be able to afford to live in the town where they were brought up, work, or have family connections.

The development, which will include 57 two-bedroom homes, will be the largest affordable housing estate in the district, where councillors have claimed efforts to provide cheaper homes are being strangled by Government policies which are being circumnavigated by developers, a council has said.

Last year the authority, which works towards a 40 per cent affordable housing target on developments of more than 15 properties, released figures showing in the last quarter of 2017 it met just 52 per cent of its target of 120 below market value homes.

Officers said 28 of the homes on the site off Thurstan Road would be for shared ownership and 44 for rent.

After the meeting, the committee’s chairman, Councillor Peter Bardon said the increase in affordable housing the development would bring represented a significant “boost not only for Northallerton, but Hambleton district as a whole”.