BLACKBURN with Darwen will see 120 ‘affordable homes’ completed in the year to March 31, exceeding its target, the council’s regeneration boss has claimed.

Cllr Phil Riley said the sudden increase in new housing for the less well-off confirmed recent national figures revealing that property prices in the borough have started to rise sharply.

He was speaking after a study last week by national estate agents Your Move revealed that house prices in the local authority area had risen by 16.4 per cent in the 12 months to the end of January after years of depression.

Cllr Riley has told colleagues in a report to Thursday’s council forum: “I can reveal that the expected housing completions for 2017/18 are 430.

“Our affordable housing delivery is expected to be 120 new homes, accounting for around 28 per cent of all completions and exceeds the council’s planned target of 20 per cent.

“Housing completions are now at the highest in Blackburn with Darwen for over 15 years.”

This contrasts with December 2016, when he was admitted only 25 out of 300 projected new homes had been started leaving the council’s target of 9,500 new properties, including 4,000 executive-style homes on greenfield sites, in 15 years in tatters.

Cllr Riley said: “This has taken a long time and a lot of hard work from many people.

“We are now seeing confidence in the borough housing market rise as the figure of a 16.4 per cent increase in property prices shows.

“This at last means we are getting interest from private developers in the more difficult brownfield sites and in building affordable homes. Our plan was always about a mix of properties not just executive homes on green belt land.”

Cllr John Slater, leader of the council Conservative group, said: “The council has rejigged its targets and is not meeting the new ones let alone the original ones.

“Even if the figures are true, this is till not good enough and they are building homes in the wrong places with too many on greenfield sites.”

Cllr Riley’s report also reveals developers have paid the council £5million towards affordable housing as a condition of planning permissions for desirable sites.

He said: “Homes around Gib Lane are selling fast, including luxury detached properties ones costing £300,000 which is unheard of in the borough.”

Cllr Riley added that Blackburn with Darwen Council has been awarded £737,000 under the Government’s Housing Land Release Fund to help bring three brownfield sites at Newfield, Fishmoor Drive and Griffin Regeneration Site.