WORK has started on the first new council homes to be built in the Winchester area in more than 30 years.

Three three-bedroom terrace houses are being built on a former garage site owned by the city council at Bourne Close in Otterbourne.

A second batch of homes will follow later this month, on council-owned land at Station Close, Itchen Abbas.

The houses will be council-owned and let to people with local connections to both villages.

FE Chase & Sons Ltd are building the houses, which are part of the council’s New Homes Delivery Programme aiming to increase affordable housing in Winchester, with a target of 300 new homes over the next ten years.