A HOUSING charity is bidding to build much-needed affordable homes in Denbury.

South Western Housing Society has submitted plans for the small scale development of nine new homes and one custom build property on the edge of the village.

The aim is to provide homes for people in the community or those who have been forced to move away to find accommodation they could afford.

The proposals for the site at Denbury Down Road are to build four bungalows, two flats and three houses as well as outline permission for a self-build home.

Extensive consultation was carried out with the parish council and villagers before the application was submitted to Teignbridge Council.

Overall the comments were said to be fairly positive and responses were taken into consideration in the final proposal.

A Housing Need Survey was carried out in 2012 which identified four households requiring affordable housing in the village.

And in January 2016, a Neighbourhood Plan consultation event produced a further three families.

Two other households are registered with the Devon Home Choice and two more are registered with the Help To Buy South West for shared ownership properties.

All the households concerned want to stay living in the village.

In a statement to planners, architects Mitchell said: ‘Having identified a housing need, the next step was to investigate whether there were any sites in the parish that would be suitable for the development of affordable housing.

‘They were looking for an exceptional site which is an exception to normal planning policy, exclusively aimed at meeting local need.

‘The homes provided on such a site must be for people from the surveyed community or people who have been forced to move away to find accommodation they could afford.’

The process to find the site has taken many years and involved discussions with a variety of landowners.

Until the current landowner came forward, no exceptional site had been identified.

Devon Rural Housing Partnership, responding to comments at the consultation, said: ‘Delivery of development requires a willing landowner and while we agree in principle there would have been other preferable sites for development within Denbury, this land was not available.

‘Meantime the affordable housing need in the village has increased.

‘A careful balance has to be struck between providing sufficient homes to make a scheme viable while also ensuring the proposal is the right scale for the village setting.’

Before homes are allocated, affordable housing need will be verified by housing officers, government agencies and housing associations.

A decision on the application is expected in June.