The first new council homes to be built in Birmingham for three decades have been handed over.

Lovell has completed work on four homes at the £2.75 million development in Pershore Road, Balsall Heath. The homes are the first to be delivered by Birmingham City Council's Municipal Housing Trust under its large-scale new-build housing programme. The scheme, which will see more than 550 new council homes built in the city, is being carried out with investment from Birmingham City Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).

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The first four families received the keys to their new homes from Councillor John Lines, Birmingham City Council's cabinet member for housing, and Lovell regional director David Gough at a specially-arranged ceremony.

At Pershore Road, Lovell is building 33 new two-bedroom flats and two-, three- and four-bedroom houses. All of the homes will meet Level Four of the Code for Sustainable Homes – the system for measuring the environmental performance of new housing – helping them to achieve a 44 per cent improvement in energy efficiency against current building regulations. Properties will also meet the criteria of Secured by Design, an initiative promoting the inclusion of crime prevention measures in the design of new housing developments. Work at the development is due to be completed in February 2011.

In addition, Lovell is building 17 two-, three- and four-bedroom houses at Regent Road, Handsworth, under Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust’s new-build programme which are set to be finished in January 2011.

(CD/BMcC)