THE first new council housing in over a generation is on its way to Stroud.
The inaugural meeting of the new Housing Committee of Stroud District Council decided to provide 150 new homes over the next five years, an increase on its previous target of 100.
With demand for social housing in the area hovering at around 3,000, the committee chairwoman Councillor Mattie Ross admitted the homes were the "tip of the iceberg".
But she said: "It is a brilliant start."
Tenants were involved in planning the building programme, which would also include the £1.8million acquisition of 18 homes at Littlecombe in Dursley.
Mrs Ross said: "It is our housing stock, but it is their homes. One of the things that was really good I think was that the tenants now are so much more involved.
"We are also making the homes that people are already living in better with our repairs and maintenance."
The council was working too with other registered social landlords to support their provision of additional accommodation to rent.
Sandra Mutton, chair of the Stroud Council Housing Forum, agreed things were looking good.
"I think in a lot of ways things are getting much better," she said. "The houses have got to be one of the best things since sliced bread."
In weighty documents presented to the committee it was made clear that the new homes would be built using existing assets, mainly sites where there are currently garages rented out by the council.
Developers would be asked to tender by September, with work beginning by July 2014 and the first homes ready by April the following year.
A total of £22.6million would be spent, delivering 202 council homes when replacements already under way for crumbling Woolaway replacements were counted too.