More than £350,000 is expected to be given to support affordable housing projects in parts of West Dorset.

West Dorset District Councillors are being asked to earmark the money for Winterbourne Abbas, Powerstock, Mosterton and Dorchester.

The biggest figure, of £150,000, is expected to go for a community land trust development for 20 flats on a tennis court site off the Borough Gardens in Dorchester. Other suggested sums are £95,000 for eight homes in Powerstock; £91,000 for 13 homes at Winterbourne Abbas and £15,000 towards 36 homes in Mosterton.

Some of the money will come from a fund made up of a premium builders pay to the council, known as Section 106 funding. The council also has £1.25 million set aside in another fund which it was awarded in 2016-17 specifically for community-led housing projects.

The Winterbourne Abbas scheme is for 13 affordable homes, south of Valley Cottages, as part of the Homes England Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Programme by the Stonewater Housing Association. Costs on the site have increased because of the need to relocate power cables, ground contamination and an increase in building costs.

Councillors will be told at a strategy committee meeting on Tuesday, May 19, that the Mosterton scheme, also run by Stonewater, is for 10 rented and 26 shared ownership and rent to buy properties adjacent to Windsor Close. The extra money will be used to buy an area of woodland next to the site.

In Powerstock the village community land trust is working with Hastoe Housing Association to deliver eight affordable rented homes on a site next to The Forge in Kings Lane. Here the original contractor went into administration which led to the scheme being retendered and the costs rising as a result.

The Dorchester project is also a collaboration between the local community land trust and Hastoe. The aim is to provide small flats which could be sold at a discount so they could be affordable to those on low and average wages in the town.

The recommendation to the committee notes: “No funds will be spent without detailed financial analysis of the final scheme and before the scheme starts on site. “