Harpenden is to get its first development of affordable housing since the 1970s with work starting on a new housing scheme on a former industrial estate in the town.

Hightown Praetorian & Churches Housing Association will be letting out 15 flats to local people from the council’s housing waiting list at below market rent on the completed development, as well as offering eight homes for shared ownership to first-time buyers priced out of the market in the area.

Work has started to clear the former Lea Industrial Estate, which is in the Lea Valley at Batford between the River Lea and Lower Luton Road. Developers Lodge Park Ltd will be building 67 new apartments and maisonettes, as well as two office buildings, on the site.

Hightown, a charitable housing association aiming to help people unable to afford to buy or rent homes at market values, will acquire 35 per cent of the properties on the new development, all one and two bedroom apartments.

Harpenden, which was named the 9th most affluent community in England in a 2012 Church Urban Fund study, now has average house values of £712,669 and average monthly private rents of £1,622, according to Zoopla Property.

Hightown Development Director George Edkins said: "Since the 1970s the supply of affordable homes in Harpenden has virtually dried up and property prices are very high. Effectively this is the first affordable rented scheme in the town in at least 40 years.

"We’re delighted to be developing some much-needed affordable homes with Lodge Park Ltd as we want to help local people who are priced out of the market in their own community."