A HOUSING association has announced plans to build over 50 affordable new homes in Darlington.

Railway Housing Association has been granted £1.2 million from the Homes and Communities Agency and is now finalising its plans for a 53-home development off Haughton Road.

In total, the Association will spend £5.6 million on the scheme and a planning application will be submitted in the next two months.

If it is approved, work could start in spring 2015, with completion the following year.

Anne Rowlands, Railway Housing Association’s chief executive, said: “This will be by far our biggest housing development in the last 25 years and we are delighted that it will help to meet some of the great demand for high quality affordable rented accommodation in Darlington.”

The news comes just over a month after the Association began work on a £1.3 million, ten-home development at Alverton Drive, Darlington, which is expected to be completed early next year.