Residents on housing wait lists could finally be given the opportunity to move into nearly £8 million worth of empty Godalming homes that have sat vacant for years, Waverley Borough Council officers said.

Ockford Ridge in Godalming is a council-led housing regeneration project that has sought upgrade the old 1930s estate with high quality properties.

The plan has been to deliver the homes in a series of stages as part of a £30m overall scheme with some properties retrofitted, alongside new builds, to be super eco friendly.

The project has faced some issues including post-completion defects due to poor site supervision by the contractor, councils papers show, but the biggest headache has been saved for those in phase c which have looked finished but stood empty.

Now after lengthy delays which the council has said were down to issues with Thames Water’s design requirements and severe issues completing the works, 20 of the 30 properties Phase C are ready to be handed over.

Speaking at the Monday, March 9, overview and scrutiny committee, officers said the council was about to enter into a settlement agreement with contractors that would see residents begin moving into the new homes within the next eight weeks – and in some cases sooner.

They added: “We will see the homes delivered and handed over and occupied. The homes were not practically complete.

“Unfortunately they may look that way but they weren’t, but they are now.”

The remaining 10 properties still can not be occupied until highway work has been completed – but the council expects those to be ready by year’s end.

The average cost of building the 134 homes across the site has worked out at about 270,000 – for quality properties built to the highest environmental standards “so in terms of value for money” officers said “that is pretty good”.

Council officers added: “I just want to say, there’s been no one that’s been more frustrated on behalf of residents than (officers) who have wanted these homes to be fully finished and completed with residents in them.

“That is absolutely the team’s primary focus and they’ve been working flat out to complete that.”

He said they had put in tremendous effort to work through the myriad of issues that delayed the project, saying: “The team’s focus is absolutely on getting those homes occupied as soon as possible because the reason we’re building them is to provide fantastic new homes for people who live in Waverley.”

The Ockford Ridge estate was part of the Eashing Park Estate and Godalming Burial Ground and first occupied in 1931. In 2009, proposals were developed to improve properties that failed to meet the decent home standards.

Show homes were built in 2016, with the next three phases, D, A, and B, coming online between 2018 and 2022.

The delayed phase C is saw 18 small two storey terraced homes demolished and replaced with 30 new net zero properties with sustainability features including air source heat pumps and solar panels.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

The report is available here.