PARTNERSHIP work has enabled ‘much-needed’ affordable housing to be delivered in South Ham.

Work between South Ham ward councillors and Sovereign Housing Association has seen the development of five new affordable properties on the corner of Paddock Road and Pinkerton Road.

The land, owned by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, was the site of the former Paddock Road Surgery.

As previously reported in The Gazette the land was sold to Sovereign Housing Association, to enable the organisation to go ahead with the development.

Since then, the three Labour ward councillors, Gary Watts, Colin Regan and Sean Keating, have been working closely with the housing association to ensure the properties that were built would meet the borough council’s agreed Local Plan to deliver affordable housing.

Cllr Watts speaking on behalf of the South Ham Labour Councillor Team, said: “We very much welcome the provision of much needed affordable housing in South Ham.

“This is the end of a long campaign by local Labour councillors to have affordable housing built on the site since the surgery closed nearly six years ago.

“This is a prime example of local ward councillors knowing our ward and Sovereign Housing Association valuing our input.”

Having been opened in 2012, the Paddock Road Surgery brought South Ham its first GP surgery in nearly 10 years.

However, the building was deemed no longer fit for purpose and the facilities have been relocated to the nearby St Andrew’s Centre, in Western Way.

Now the site has been transformed by Sovereign into three, two-bedroom houses and two three-bedroom houses on the site.

All five properties are part of a shared equity scheme, where residents part rent part buy, and it is hoped that all the new builds should be occupied by Christmas.