WORK to fulfil Bournemouth’s need for council housing continues, says the leader of the council.

Cllr John Beesley was asked at Tuesday’s council meeting by Conservative colleague Cllr Michael Weinhonig what the authority is doing to meet future housing needs.

Cllr Beesley said a more robust set of housing criteria, focusing on those with a ‘housing need’ and with a connection to Bournemouth, helped measured ‘actual need’ and helped the council ‘better prioritise social housing’.

He added: “As well as managing and maintaining our own council housing stock, we have a programme in place to purchase and build approximately 100 additional new council homes this financial year.”

That included the conversion of Houses in Multiple Occup-ation into family housing and restarting the council’s home-building programme five years ago.

The largest development, at Duck Lane in West Howe, is ‘well advanced’, he went on to add.