CAPITAL spending on new homes in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area is to be given a £10m boost.

Spending on new builds and buying properties will increase from £175m to £185.4 million – providing almost 1,500 homes.

Much of the building work currently underway, or planned, is on council-owned sites but the authority has also been buying up suitable locations for its housing programme.

Deputy BCP council leader Cllr Phil Broadhead says that more than 350 units are currently underway with another eight schemes in the pipeline for the next six months.

He told Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting that the project was “game-changing” and “turbo-charged.”

The meeting unanimously approved bringing forward spending on four of more than thirty sites which has been identified so far, adding an extra 170 homes to the agreed scheme.

Cllr Broadhead listed a number of schemes which were due to be completed this year – including 22 homes in Cynthia Road; 14 at Moorside Road and 9 at the Northbourne Day Centre site with work due to start at Craven Court and Wilkinson Drive either this month, or on May.

“We are absolutely taking this seriously…it is a huge programme approach,” he said.

“We are getting on with the job and delivering council homes across the BCP region at pace.”