A £100m mini-town of 765 new homes will help ease Hampshire’s crippling housing crisis, according to a council boss.

The Dowd’s Farm development, Hedge End, which will include 230 properties set aside for affordable housing, a primary school, a lake, a 16-acre-park and a community centre, has just been officially opened.

The farmhouse, a grade II listed building, has been preserved on the green field site which is home to a rich wildlife – so much so that one block of flats has been built with a bat void.

Crisis help Eastleigh Borough Council leader and resident on the new site Keith House said: “There will be an enormous demand for the affordable housing and while it won’t solve the problem it will help with the housing crisis.

“There is need for affordable homes at the moment.

“This problem has been stored up for many years and now with the hard economic times ahead it is has become even more pressing.

“It is a great place to live with lots of greenery and wooded areas and a great deal of affordable housing which is something of vital importance.”

He added that when the project was complete it would be “desperately impressive.”

There are already 350 houses built with another 150 under construction and it is expected to take a further two before it is completed.

However, in a year’s time Eastleigh Borough Council will hand responsibility of the site to Hedge End Town Council.

Until 2000 Dowd’s Farm was owned by Miss White who left it to the Salvation Army on her death.

The site is now owned by Bovis Homes and Taylor Woodrow Developments.

Hedge End town clerk Kevin Glyn-Davies said: “There is a need for affordable housing there is no doubt about that.

“We have had no complaints from people about the infrastructure being put in place in fact I think people are enjoying benefiting from the facilities.”