A BASINGSTOKE-based housing association has secured funding to build affordable homes.

Sentinel has agreed a four-year deal with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to deliver 217 affordable homes.

This includes the Basingstoke sites at Chapel Hill in Houndmills and Freemantle and Taverner Closes, in Oakridge.

HCA, the Government’s housing and regeneration agency, has invested £4m to deliver the affordable housing, and Sentinel will provide the remaining £28m needed to fund homes in Basingstoke, Yateley, Eastleigh and Andover. It will provide 143 homes for rent and 74 for shared ownership as the sites are developed between now and 2017.

The housing association has already been granted planning permission to demolish three residential blocks of flats and maisonettes at the closes in Oakridge, and replace them with 118 houses and 72 flats. The work is due to start this month but Sentinel only had enough money to complete phase one of the project and build 115 of the 190 homes.

The £4m funding from HCA will enable Sentinel to complete this development.

The funds will also enable Sentinel to begin the first phase of work at Chapel Hill by building 69 of the planned 600 homes on the former Eli Lilly and Liverpool Victoria sites. Sentinel has given a scoping report to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council outlining its plans for the site, but a planning application has yet to be submitted.

Mark Perry, Sentinel chief executive, said: “We’re doing all we can to tackle the housing crisis and want to help as many people as possible into an affordable home.”