A MULTI-million pound Government grant has been awarded to help tackle Worcester's chronic shortage of affordable housing.

The city has scooped a £4m cash boost, the third largest of its kind in the West Midlands. It means work can start on four sites to build 85 new low-cost homes.

At the moment Worcester has 2,105 people on the waiting list.

A recent survey by Worcester City Council identified an immediate shortfall in affordable housing of more than 2,780 units.

"The grant signals a start to addressing the chronic housing situation in the city, but there is still a long way to go," said Kathryn Robb, housing services manager at the city council.

Council housing board cbairman coun Francis Lankester said the affordable homes were desperately needed in Worcester.

Funding from the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme, will help to provide a mixture of properties, from four-bedroom houses to one-bedroom flats, to meet the city's wide-ranging needs.

Three of the schemes - Wyld's Lane, Bath Road, Diglis, and Whitmore Road, St John's - already have planning permission and building work is due to start on those in June.

Planning approval

Worcestershire Housing Association is delivering the 44-property scheme at Wyld's Lane and the 15-property scheme on the fourth site, Martley Road, Henwick, which has yet to win planning approval.

Ken Hazeldene, regional manager for the association, said the grant announcement was wonderful news.

"This is a substantial allocation," he said. "The last grant of this size was for the two sites at Warndon Villages."

Tony Bowron, head of development at Bromford Carinthia Housing Association, which is responsible for the 14-property Whitmore Road scheme, agreed that this was good news for Worcester.

"We are pleased to have received Housing Corporation funding to provide 14 much-needed family homes for Worcester," he said.

"This demonstrates the benefits of partnership working between local housing associations and the city council."

Festival Housing Association's Bath Road scheme will provide 15 flats to help vulnerable young people live independently.

And a small proportion of the grant will also be spent on making improvements to an existing housing association scheme in Wyld's Lane.

Once they have been built, the new homes will be allocated to those registered on the council's waiting list.