THE team hoping to deliver the West Tey garden community has promised more than 5,000 affordable homes to help tackle the housing crisis.

In 2017, there were 4,220 households on the affordable housing waiting list in Colchester alone.

In a bid to reverse these figures, housing association L&Q and partners has announced proposals for thousands of affordable homes, which will include shared ownership properties.

As part of their plans for West Tey, L&Q and partners has also promised to deliver state-of-the-art infrastructure alongside housing the community would need to thrive.

This includes nine primary schools, two secondary schools, 100 acres of employment space providing more than 17,000 jobs, a sustainable transport system and more.

Craig Luttman, regional Managing Director at L&Q, said: “L&Q has a long history of delivering affordable housing and are aware of the positive impact affordable housing can have on the speed of housing delivery.

“We are a long-term investor and partner in creating thriving communities, and look forward to applying our expertise and experience to deliver over 5,000 new affordable homes alongside market housing at West Tey.”

Gateway 120 Ltd is a consortium of landowners between Braintree and Marks Tey.

The consortium has been working together since 2008 with the vision of creating a new garden community.

Robert Crayston, from Gateway120, said the latest news about affordable housing was promising.

He said: “As local landowners we chose to work with L&Q because of their extensive experience in creating communities with a positive legacy for the local area.

“We are excited about the potential to deliver homes of a wide range of sizes and tenures at West Tey with the infrastructure needed for that community to thrive.”

The plans also include a community health centre, with doctors, dentists and other health services, a new leisure centre with a swimming pool and other sports facilities, a town centre and individual neighbourhoods, each with its own centre, new parks and sports fields.

However, The Campaign Against Urban Sprawl in Essex has been expressing objections to West Tey since plans first emerged.

The campaigners do not believe West Tey is viable, deliverable or sustainable, and feel the infrastructure promises made do not match the budgets allocated.