Ipswich: Plans for New Council Homes

25 September 2012, 15:09 | Updated: 25 September 2012, 15:20

Plans for around 120 new council houses in south-east Ipswich have been announced.

The Borough Council wants to build the houses in Bader Close to provide more affordable rented homes in the town and to ease the shortage of homes. Last week, the Council put in a planning application for seven council houses at two small sites in the north-west of Ipswich – in Coltsfoot Road and Whitton Church Lane. That  application will be debated by members of the Planning & Development Committee next month.

Bader Close will see the most significant development of new council houses – there have been no council homes built in the town for more than two decades.

There is a shortage of homes in the town, both to rent and to buy. Building by private developers of new homes for sale has reduced drastically as a result of the state of the economy. This, together with the increasing difficulty for people to raise a deposit for a mortgage, has meant even greater demand for homes to rent.

The policy of building council houses again was agreed by the Council earlier this year. The programme will also create local construction jobs.