A LEADING house builder is to create more than 100 jobs in Hampshire as it launches five new developments in the county over the next 12 months.

Barratt said the jobs will be created to build and sell the proposed new homes which it hopes to win planning permission for in the coming months.

Barratt said it predominately hires local sub-contractors and tradesmen – so local businesses and people will benefit directly from the new jobs.

The proposed developments include 35 homes at Dowd’s Farm, Hedge End, 35 David Wilson homes in Sandy Lane, Romsey, 85 homes at Jubilee Avenue in Paulsgrove, 76 homes in Purbrook and 275 homes in Green Lane, Clanfield in partnership with Bovis Homes. Fifteen homes have also been completed in Swanwich.

A £15m estate regeneration project for Southampton City Council at Hinkler Parade in Thornhill, where 107 new homes are being built, has already employed nine community residents and seen eight apprentices placed on the site.

Barratt senior sales manager Zak Long said: “The Prime Minister has said again and again that one of the best ways to boost economic growth and get people working is through building more homes. The plans we are announcing show exactly how that theory works in practice.”

He said the homes would address a “chronic shortage of housing” while creating local construction jobs and a boost to the county economy and retailers from new residents spending their wages.

The development comes as lenders have revived 95 per cent mortgages for first-time buyers.

Mr Long said: “This means that people who haven’t previously been able to raise the large deposit necessary to buy a place of their own could now buy a home from us with a deposit of just £5,150.”

Nobody was available at Hampshire County Council to comment.