Families in the Vale of White Horse struggling to find suitable accommodation now have a better chance of being able to move into affordable housing after the district hit its target for building new homes. Between April 2014 and the end of March 2015 250 new affordable homes were built in the district, a big rise from just 72 in the previous year. Vale of White Horse District Council set itself an ambitious target of delivering these homes to help meet the needs of working families, new households and older people who were in unsuitable housing or wished to get onto the housing ladder through shared ownership. The homes, which were completed in 13 different areas across the district over the last year, were affordable rent or shared properties available through housing associations. This has provided much needed accommodation for families like the O’Connor’s. Jenny recently moved to a new build rental home in Botley with her children. She said: “The move has been great, it’s made life much easier for us as the kids go to school close by. We really like the house and once we had joined the Vale’s housing register everything was sorted out really quickly for us.” Candice Forbes and her family moved into a rented new build in East Challow. She said, “Our old house was too small and we really struggled with space, especially for the kids. Since the move we have all been a lot happier. It’s like whole new way of life; the house is amazing, the community is great and everything feels very safe.” Alex Dowding was one of those who took his first step on to the property ladder with a shared ownership property in Faringdon. He said: “I was previously in a place with other people so it’s really great to have my own property with my own space. It’s the first property I’ve owned, I thought it would be a real struggle but the whole shared ownership process in the Vale was much easier than expected.” With hundreds of families in the Vale of White Horse celebrating over the last 12 months after moving into new affordable accommodation the council has increased its affordable target still further and is making more land available to enable even more homes to be built over the next few years. Cllr Matthew Barber, Leader of Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “This is really positive news for the district. The need for new housing is one of the biggest issues nationally with many people struggling to find accommodation that is suitable to their needs. We now expect this steady growth in house building to continue into 2016 and beyond and have set our target for the next year to reflect that.”