A HOUSING organisation will complete its first ever construction of affordable accommodation this month - eight months behind schedule.

Brent Housing Partnership hopes the three homes, in Aldbury Avenue, Wembley, will be a model it can continue as the government reduces spending on social housing by 60% despite wanting to cut its housing benefit bill.

Last year Brent Council paid out nearly �270 million in housing benefit to more than 40,000 claimants.

The money would pay for another 1,173 of the three story homes which cost a total of �700,000 which was largely funded by the Homes and Communities Agency with the land donated by Brent Council.

Gerry Doherty, chief executive of BHP, said: “This is an exciting project for BHP as it’s the first time we are building as well as managing our own homes. We have been involved in the whole process from start to finish and we hope it will be the first of many.”

The news comes as the National Housing Federation revealed in a report out this week that a first-time buyer in Brent would need to earn �52,714 to by a house in the cheapest 25 per cent of prices (�205,000) borrowing 3.5 times their income with a ten per cent deposit.

The problem gets worse in Brent’s surrounding boroughs with first-time buyers needing to earn �87,429 to buy a cheap home in Hammersmith and Fulham while the actual average income is �30,217.

In Kensington and Chelsea the figures rise to �108,000 salary to buy a house in the bottom 25 per cent of prices, �420,000, while the average annual wage is �42,068.