Wandsworth Council has been given the green light to build its next wave of affordable 'Hidden Homes'.

Planning permission has been granted for six new flats in Nightingale Lane which will be offered at low cost rent to people on the council's housing waiting lists.

Five of the new homes will be provided in a roof extension to a council-owned block of flats on the corner of Nightingale Lane and Hendrick Avenue. The sixth will be built on the ground floor and utilise space currently used for storage.

The roof extension, which will be clad in aluminiuThe new Hidden Homes on Battersea's Rollo estatem and timber, will replace the block's defunct water tank and other unused roof structures.

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It will be set back from the front elevation of the block by up to two metres to reduce its visual impact from street level, while much of the new build will be masked by an existing 1.2m high parapet wall.

These new Hidden Homes bring the total number built by the council over the past decade to 244. These have all been allocated to local families in housing need for rent and also to first time buyers living in the borough on a shared ownership basis.

Since it was launched in November 2002, the Hidden Homes scheme has transformed vacant and disused spaces on housing estates like laundry rooms, storage areas and defunct boiler rooms into modern and attractive dwellings.

It has successfully brought back into use redundant spaces on housing estates that are either eyesores or could otherwise become havens for anti-social behaviour.

Wandsworth's cabinet member for housing Cllr Paul Ellis said: "The Hidden Homes scheme has played an important role in increasing the borough's supply of affordable housing over the past decade.

"As well as proving incredibly cost effective, it has also helped create jobs in the construction sector and been the key to regenerating redundant land on housing estates."

(CD/GK)