Wrekin Housing has confirmed that the new homes at the Whtichurch Road site in Prees will not be ready for occupation until February 2025.

The final electricity connections bringing electricity to the site still have to be made and these need agreements between the parties; road closures; notices to residents etc. In addition there is a Christmas embargo on road closures county-wide in Shropshire.

For these reasons it will be January before the site gets electricity and this should enable hand-over of homes ready for occupation in February.

The delay does enable the very time-consuming checking of Local Connection claims to be done systematically and thoroughly by Wrekin officers, ensuring the criteria are properly implemented.

Two of the adapted bungalows have been allocated directly by Shropshire Council to persons whose needs are for Accessible/Adaptable properties, it has been confirmed that the people involved meet the local connection criteria.

With regards to the Shared Ownership homes, all six are now reserved. No applications had been received from any Prees residents, so applications were allowed from people living within the second localities band i.e. within 10 kilometres of the site, bringing in areas such as Wem and Whitchurch.