FOUR new homes for rent are in the pipeline at Winchester City Council.

Housing officers are drawing up plans for two two-bedroom and two three-bedroom on Witherbed Lane, Segensworth, in the southern parishes.

The houses will be built to Passivhaus standard, meaning they will be highly thermally efficient with reduced running costs.

The meeting for the decision day for Cabinet member Kelsie Learning heard that they would be the first Passivhaus houses built in the Winchester district using a design and build contract.

Winchester council has a target of building 1,000 council houses between 2021 and 2030.

The meeting heard that human resources issues had delayed several housing schemes with staff being poached for other jobs.

The new houses would be available to people on the housing waiting list at 70 per cent of the market rent.

Cllr Learney agreed an outline business case for the development.