Moulton: Campaign to bring social housing back to the village nearing a successful end

Three properties in Moulton – two in The Street and one in Church Road – have been vacant since early last year.

The village’s parish council has been demanding answers from Forest Heath District Council and housing association Flagship for almost a year as it looked to welcome local social housing tenants to Moulton.

After planning to sell all three houses, parish councillors managed to persuade Flagship at a meeting in March to put the two properties in The Street back in the social housing stock, but the properties remained unoccupied.

Matters came to a head at a public meeting on Tuesday, where a representative from Flagship told residents the houses would soon be back in circulation.

Moulton Parish Council chairman Bill Rampling said: “These house have been a real saga. It’s a ridiculous situation – the Government is screaming at us that there’s a housing shortage, and we’ve got three houses sitting here empty for nearly two years.

“We feel we want a mixed community and these houses provide that, because those who can’t afford to buy or rent privately can still afford to live in the village.

“We want all the walks of life in the village. We want young and old and all social backgrounds so you keep the balance of community, otherwise you get a bunch of retired people, so the village dies.”

Mr Rampling added that it was a good move because people with a link to the village could be given the houses as a priority.

David Wood, Flagship’s interim director of assets and sustainability, said refurbishment at the properties would start before Christmas and hopefully take three to four months to complete.

He added: “However, until the preparatory work is carried out we will not know the full extent of the project nor exact timings.

“These buildings are very old and present a number of challenges. While we are keen to get them back into use, it is important we respect the integrity of the building .“