The first sod has been been cut on a new 24-home affordable housing development in Biggar.

The ceremonial dig was carried out by Councillor Josh Wilson, Chair of South Lanarkshire Council's Housing committee to mark the start of work on the first new local authority homes in the village in 32 years.

With planning permission sought and granted late last year following a successful bid for £1,416,000 of Scottish Government funding, Housing & Technical Resources has designed the new homes in house, as a key part of the council's commitment to have 1000 new affordable homes for rent by 2022.

Councillor Wilson welcomed today's site start, adding: "The building of new council homes for rent in the rural area represents a delivery on our commitment to the whole of South Lanarkshire under our five year local housing strategy 'Affordable Homes, Sustainable Places'.

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"The plan sets out important housing requirements for the next five years supporting people to live independently and addressing homelessness. Today's development also specifically addresses one of the challenges facing our rural communities, namely how to boost both its population, and the demographics within that. I am delighted that these new council homes in Biggar will contribute towards that agenda.

"Taken alongside our commitment to provide 1000 new homes for rent, I am proud to say that we as a council continue to tackle the housing shortage issue head-on, supporting the provision of a broad range of affordable homes for our communities."

The development will be built by the Hadden Group on behalf of South Lanarkshire Council. Steven Brady, Managing Director at Hadden Group said: "Our team are pleased to be working with South Lanarkshire Council through the Scottish Procurement Alliance Housing Framework to bring our housing expertise to this development to deliver high quality, energy efficient affordable homes."

(MH/JG)