Seven pieces of council-owned land in Sheffield are being sold off at cheap prices to housing associations so they can build more than 200 homes at affordable rents.

The brownfield sites which are surplus to requirements are being sold off by Sheffield City Council at “less than best consideration”. The prices are not being disclosed publicly.

Anna Peysner, the council’s interim head of housing growth, told the finance and performance policy committee today (September 21) that this is in recognition that the rents charged will be low but the development costs will be high.

The sites are:

Chapelwood Road, Darnall;

Fife Street, Wincobank;

Leighton Drive, Gleadless Valley;

Milton Street car park, city centre;

Ridgeway Road, Hollinsend;

Oxley Close, Stocksbridge;

Wordsworth Avenue, Colley.

The land was marketed to the South Yorkshire Housing Partnership of 14 trusted regional housing associations. Ms Peysner told the committee that the land will not be sold until it is established that it will only be used for 100% affordable social housing.

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Referring to the Milton Street site that will provide 84 homes, she said: “We included one in the city centre because getting affordable homes in the city centre is a real challenge.”

Coun Angela Argenzio asked about energy efficiency standards and whether any homes will have solar panels. “We want these rents to be affordable but we also want the bills to be affordable,” she said.

Head of housing James Clark replied that the housing associations would have to consider this because of strict minimum energy standards for new homes.

Ms Peysner stressed that the council is also building homes but this scheme will help bring more investment in social housing to the city.