THE delivery of new council homes and affordable housing in Flintshire is to come under scrutiny.

Flintshire Council’s community and enterprise overview and scrutinty committee will meet on Wednesday to review the authority’s strategic housing and regeneration programme (SHARP).

A report to councillors provides details on the individual schemes being undertaken or being considered as part of the programme going forward.

The detail of each scheme includes the number of council and affordable homes to be developed on each site, details of any consultation undertaken, as well as status in terms of starting development including planning.

A summary of the capacity of the sites is provided for those schemes identified for future development.

In June 2015, Flintshire Council’s cabinet approved the appointment of Wates Living Space as the authority’s development partner for five years with the view of developing 500 new council and affordable housing at a range of sites across the county.

They are also commissioning a range of linked regeneration initiatives and community benefits.

The report states that since then, 12 new homes made up of eight two-bedroom properties and four three-bedroom properties, were completed at Custom House, Connah’s Quay on December 16, 2016.

Good progress is also being made at The Walks in Flint, with the construction of 92 new homes.

Of these homes 30 will be managed by the council through the Housing Revenue Account. The remaining 62 affordable properties will be managed by NEW Homes, the council’s wholly-owned housing company.

The first phase of properties on the scheme have now been handed over to the council and NEW Homes respectively and tenants have moved in.

Four of the ground floor apartments have been adapted to meet the needs of people on the council’s Specialist Housing Register. The scheme will be fully completed in April 2018.

Batch two will deliver 49 new council properties at the following sites:

l Red Hall, Connah’s Quay which was completed in October 2017 and consists of five two-bed houses. These have now been transferred to the council and the new tenants have moved in.

l Former HRA garage sites at Maes y Meillion and Heol Y Goron, Leeswood are being redeveloped and will deliver 13 new council homes. Both schemes are projected to be completed early in 2018.

l Ysgol Delyn, Mold will deliver 16 new council homes. This scheme will be completed in March 2018.

l Dairy Site, Connah’s Quay will deliver six new council homes and the construction work is planned to start on site in January 2018.

l Former Melrose Centre, Aston will deliver a total of nine council homes. Construction is scheduled to start on site in December 2016.

Following cabinet approval in March 2017, the council is currently progressing the next batch of sites and these are all at various stages of the approval process.

These sites will deliver a mixture of council, affordable and shared equity properties at the following locations: Maes Gwern, Mold; Ffordd Hiraethog, Mostyn; Ffordd Pandarus, Mostyn; Llys Dewi, Penyffordd (Holywell); Borough Grove, Flint; former council depot, Dobshill; Nant y Gro, Gronant; former Canton depot, Bagillt; Llys Alun, Rhydymwyn and land at Sealand Avenue, Garden City.

These sites could deliver a further 233 properties. This will bring the total number of properties committed to date to be delivered by the SHARP to 386.

The scrutiny committee will be called on to support the delivery of the project and nominate a representative to the council’s project review team of the Flintshire Housing Standard.

Flintshire Council’s cabinet member for housing, Cllr Bernie Attridge, said: “I am pleased at the progress that continues to be made in the delivery of SHARP.

“As the demand for social and affordable housing in all our communities continues to grow, we must maintain the momentum in our ambitious plans to address that demand.

“We are continuing to press the Welsh Government to increase Flintshire’s borrowing cap so we are able to build more to meet local need.

“These new sites are at the heart of our local communities and will potentially provide further high quality housing, help sustain those communities and create employment opportunities.”