Basildon Council has begun work on the first of 584 new homes it plans to build in the next five years, including 96 using funds from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

Three sites are included in the first phase providing a total of 11 new homes for families who are on the council’s homeseeker register.

Four new two-bedroom houses are being built on Victoria Road, Laindon, three two-bedroom homes will be added in Rettendon Gardens, Wickford and four two-bedroom houses will join Quendon Road, Basildon.

The houses in Victoria and Quendon Road will be completed and ready to let by the New Year with Rettendon Gardens to follow in the spring.

Councillor Kerry Smith, chairperson of the housing and community committee, said: “These new homes are part of the council’s ambitious new homes pipeline that will provide a balanced mix of housing in order to meet the housing needs of local people.

“These sites provide an ideal opportunity to transform under occupied garage sites that can be a magnet for flytipping and anti-social behaviour into high quality homes.”

Policy and resources committee chairman, Cllr Gavin Callaghan, added: “This shows the council is serious about building council housing and ensuring we provide high quality homes for people in our borough.

“We want to ensure we have properties for key workers which is a central pillar of our housing strategy and we also want to ensure we retain young people who might have otherwise have had to look for homes outside the borough. This is just the beginning in an aggressive new strategy for council house building in Basildon.”