Work has started on the construction of 133 homes in the south of the island.

Plans to redevelop the School Hill and Westhill Estate area of Castletown will involve the demolition of 101 existing local authority homes.

The work will be carried out in phases.

The town’s local authority confirmed that all residents affected by phase one, which is expected to be completed late next year (around November or December time), have been accommodated by either permanent moves within the local authority’s wider housing portfolio, or temporarily housed in designated properties.

Though no dates have been set in stone, potentially the first block of apartments could be completed by the end of March 2022.

So far, the demolition of the first full terrace of houses is complete, with 25 properties having already been vacated by their tenants.

Castletown Commissioners were granted planning permission (19/00961/B) for the development in February, with the work being currently undertaken by NK Construction.

The estate is situated adjacent to Malew Street and Alexandra Road, by the location of the Southern 100 grandstand, and the new dwellings form part of a £25.7 million redevelopment initiative for the area.

The wider scheme is likely to run over the course of the next five years.

The new homes, to replace housing built between 1945 and 1963, will be of an eco-friendly design and built to Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) standards.

The commissioners say the homes will be tightly insulated, so conventional heating is unnecessary, and hot water will be heated by solar panels and air source heat pump cylinder.

It is the first public sector housing development in the island to adopt these environmental standards.

The houses will range from two-bedroom bungalows, flats and houses, to three-bedroom disability bungalows and four-bedroom houses.

The commissioners say the project is intended to provide a mix of replacement local authority housing that reflects both the demand of the area and the wider southern housing list, and additionally, a number of affordable homes for resale.