PEOPLE on the housing register in Highbridge will now be able to rent a new home following the construction of seven new council homes.

The new £500,000 development in Market Street has been unveiled by the council and is the first social rent housing built by Sedgemoor District Council for 35 years.

A redundant office building at the rear of Alpha House in Market Street was demolished to make way for a new development of five one bedroom flats and a further two flats were built following the conversion of an empty former office and the former Highbridge Library building.

The new homes were unveiled by the chairman of Sedgemoor District Council Cllr Peter Clayton and representatives from Ken Biggs Construction Limited at a special ceremony last week which was attended by councillors and the public.

Cllr Duncan McGinty, leader of Sedgemoor District Council, said he is thrilled the new homes have been built and several other sites for new council homes are ‘in progress’ across the district.

“We are extremely pleased that these new homes in Highbridge will soon have people in them, all at affordable rents,” Cllr McGinty said.

“This is just part of our programme to build council houses ourselves, after rules changed to allow us to do this.

“We have several other sites in progress across the district.”

The council said its new Housing Development Strategy, which was passed in December last year, set the foundation for it to realise its ‘ambitious’ plans to build new affordable homes itself.

The project is part of the council’s commitment to providing affordable places to live and will be available for people on the housing register, waiting to be homed.

At the launch Cllr Clayton thanked representatives from Ken Biggs Construction Limited, Quattro Architects and the council’s Affordable Housing Team for their hard work in helping the project come to fruition.