Cotswold District Council is celebrating Rural Housing Week with the groundbreaking of a new rural housing development in Sunground, Avening.

The National Housing Federation's Rural Housing Week 2022 takes place July 4-8 and is said to highlight the challenges facing housing in rural communities.

Leader of the council, Cllr Joe Harris, said: "We are committed to providing truly affordable homes to help local people stay local. Developments like this, which provide many new homes for social rent are incredibly important because the cost of renting or buying homes in the Cotswolds is out of reach for many people.

"In the face of a growing affordability crisis, we are committed to increasing the number of affordable homes across the district for local people. This site is just one of many that we are working on alongside developers and housing associations to ensure we continue to provide truly affordable homes for the people who live and work in the Cotswold District.

"We are also making a substantial investment into this development to ensure it is as environmentally friendly and as sustainable as possible to help tackle climate change and future proof this fantastic rural housing scheme."

To further enhance the development, properties will boast air source heat pumps for heating and hot water, electric vehicle charging points, solar panels, water butts, secure cycle storage, broadband and bat, swift and hedgehog boxes across the site.

The Sunground, Avening is a 100 per cent affordable rural housing scheme and will provide 14 new homes. The development will include three 2-bedroom and six 1-bedroom social rented units and four 2-bedroom and one 3-bedroom shared ownership units.

The site will be developed by Gloucestershire-based housing association Bromford as development agent, with J. Harper and Sons Limited the contractors for the site. The development is being delivered on behalf of Gloucestershire Rural Housing Association (GHRA) through Bromford's Strategic Partnership funding agreed with Homes England.

Dan Coward, senior contracts manager at J. Harper and Sons Limited said: "We are pleased to be working in partnership with Gloucestershire Rural Housing Association, Bromford and the rest of the project team to construct and deliver high-quality housing close to Tetbury.

"We look forward to working collaboratively together on this development."

When complete, the new rented homes will be advertised via Homeseeker Plus, the council's choice-based letting system. Applicants will need to be registered on Homeseeker Plus in order to bid on one of the rented homes on the development.

Priority for both the social rented and shared ownership homes will be given to those with a defined local connection to Avening, followed by the surrounding parishes.