WEST Oxfordshire is on track to meet its interim target of newly-built affordable and social homes.
A total of 134 have been built in the past year, in a three-year rolling programme of 340 units. But the demand through the district council's waiting list for homes is still the same as ever.
One of the lucky ones to move into purpose-built affordable homes in the past few weeks is 25-year-old Sam Biddle, who is a resident of the Cottsway Housing development, at Shilton Park, Carterton.
She has moved into a part-buy, part-rent one-bedroom flat, and showed Witney MP David Cameron round her new home with her mum, Julie Biddle, all pictured.
Miss Biddle, information officer of Witney Town Council, said: "I have only been in the property about four weeks, and one of my first visitors is the David Cameron, in my kitchen, with my mum!
"As a first-time buyer, it is so difficult to get your first foot on the property ladder and a scheme like this has helped me to do this.
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"I explained to Mr Cameron how it has helped me get a property in the town I grew up in, with my family and friends not too far away, and close by to my job in Witney."
The Carterton scheme is part of the new Shilton Park housing estate, and has a mix of 38 homes, both rented and part-buy. Dee Hempstead, of Cottsway Housing, the biggest provider of social housing in the district, said it helped young families, couples, and single people get a foot on the housing ladder.
The development was funded mainly by Cottsway, with £2m of Government and £356,000 of district council subsidy.
Miss Biddle, daughter of an RAF family, based at Brize Norton, was among the 2,000 people on the waiting list of the district council in need of a home.
According to Leslie Sherratt, head of housing, the number has remained roughly the same for the past few years. The ability to provide social and affordable housing is largely dependent on funds provided through the Government's Housing Corporation.
She said: "The council has set a realistic target of providing 340 units from 2006 through to 2010.
"In the past year, 134 of them were built, above the target, but we expect it to be a little lower this year, followed by a catch-up the following year.
"You can't be absolutely sure, however, because a lot is dependent on the market and whether developers have the confidence to build."
Of the 134 provided, 39 were, like Miss Biddle's, shared-ownership homes, while 79 were for rent, and 16 in the Homebuy category, where they are offered for sale at 60 per cent less than market value - with the house tied-in to the scheme on future sales.
In West Oxfordshire, planning rules mean that private developers have to set aside 30 per cent for affordable housing in schemes of more than 15 new homes in the three towns of Witney, Carterton, and Chipping Norton. In the rest of the district, the proportion goes up to 50 per cent.
Under the Local Development Framework - formerly called the Local Plan - which is being reviewed, new targets for affordable housing may be set.
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