A NEW army housing estate was marked as officially complete with a visit from Ministry of Defence on Monday.

Minister for Defence Procurement Guto Bebb met with service personnel and their families now living on the newly-built Ashdown Estate, which began construction of 322 homes in November 2016.

The estate was delivered under the Army Basing Programme (ABP), a joint Army and Defence Infrastructure programme, which is providing the facilities the army needs to live, work and train in the UK as it returns from Germany and rebases and restructures across the UK.

Mr Bebb said: "The Defence Estate is where our serving personnel live, work and train. It's not just a place to live, but a community and it is essential that our Armed Forces families can feel at home wherever they are posted.

"That is why I am proud to support this new development of first class homes for those who sacrifice the most for our nation."

The mix of three and four bedroom homes constructed by housebuilder Hill have red bricks and traditional roof styles, and the site includes two children play areas and public open spaces.

These homes are in addition to the £1 billion MOD is investing in infrastructure in the Salisbury Plain under the ABP.

To accommodate the 4,000 extra service personnel and their families relocating to Salisbury Plain by 2019, MOD will provide just over 1,300 new military family homes, about 2,600 bed spaces for single soldiers and nearly 250 other buildings such as offices, garages, workshops and mess facilities.