A £10m new council housing development in Blackpool should become a  template for similar investment nationwide, according to shadow housing minister Mike Amesbury.

Mr Amesbury visited the scheme on Troutbeck Crescent, Mereside, where 75 new homes are due for completion by next April.

He said: “We need to see more of this across the country. We need a new generation of socially-rented homes, built at scale, with carbon zero hard-wired in.”

The shadow minister chatted with Angela Short, one of the first tenants to move into the completed part of the site with husband Mark and two of their three children, Jemma, 17 and Declan, 18.

Mr Amesbury also met joiner Liam Coburn, from Warton, originally taken on by the council contractor Tyson’s when he was an apprentice.

Council leader Coun Lynn Williams told the shadow minister: “If we’re able to create strong communities – Blackpool as a great place to live – then educational attainment, better health, employment, skills development, opportunities for people, all those things flow from it.”

The scheme is set to deliver 27 two bedroom houses, 18 three bedroom houses, two three bedroom accessible houses, nine two bedroom accessible houses and 19 one bedroom apartments which will be managed on behalf of the council by Blackpool Coastal Housing (BCH).

The project, which includes energy efficiency measures, has been funded by the council and supported with grant funding from Homes England under the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21.