Portsmouth ploughs ahead with council housing building project

An artist's impression of flats on the site of the old Southsea Community Centre, in Kings StreetAn artist's impression of flats on the site of the old Southsea Community Centre, in Kings Street
An artist's impression of flats on the site of the old Southsea Community Centre, in Kings Street

MORE than 200 new council homes are being built in a bid to tackle growing waiting lists and pull in extra rental income.

The city council says the work is part of the most ambitious council house-building project in Portsmouth since the Second World War.

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Tory council leader Councillor Donna Jones said: ‘These new homes will make a real difference to people’s lives.

‘We have a responsibility to provide good quality housing options for local people and we take that responsibility seriously.

‘There are very few local authorities in the country building housing at the same rate as us and we are proud to be leading the way.

‘It shows our commitment to making sure that people have the high quality local homes they need.’

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The council will finish work on 16 new flats, in Winston Churchill Avenue, in the next couple of months. And work is to start on 60 new homes on the site of the old Somerstown Health Centre, in Blackfriars Close.

Planning permission has been granted for 23 flats on the site of the old Southsea Community Centre in Kings Street, and for three sites on land the council owns in Havant, totalling another 95 homes.

The programme is on top of another project which has seen the council open three new developments in Portsmouth, with three other adult supported living facilities in the pipeline, providing a total of 60 new bedrooms in the city.

It comes after Gosport Borough Council forked out £2m before Christmas building 16 homes, in St Vincent Road, the first built in the town for 30 years.

A total of 14 two-bedroom homes, fit for four people, and two three-bedroom, six-person homes were allocated to people on the council’s housing register.