More than £10 million is being spent transforming 174 former nurses’ flats into cheap housing.
Leicester City Council is investing £10.5 million creating 154 affordable homes at the site in Hospital Close, near Leicester General Hospital, on the eastern edge of the city.
A deal has been struck to buy the properties from the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL), with the cost covered by money from Right to Buy receipts along with some borrowing.
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The council said eventually the overall capital expenditure will be paid back by rental income from the houses.
Unused Right to Buy money is returned to the Government unless it is spent, so housing schemes such as this ensure the money is reinvested locally.
Work is likely to begin on refurbishing and converting the units over the coming weeks, with the first likely to be ready for occupation from the autumn. The homes will include three-bedroomed semi-detached houses, along with some one and two-bed flats.
Some of the blocks currently have shared facilities, but these will be converted into the smaller flats. The next stages of work will involve detailed layouts of the new homes, and appointing a contractor for the building work.
Some of the more straightforward refurbishment work will be done at the same time as more complex remodelling of the units which require more work, in order to bring them back into use as quickly as possible.
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Leicester assistant city mayor responsible for housing, Coun Elly Cutkelvin, said: “These units were formally used to house nurses working at the neighbouring Leicester General Hospital, but have been unoccupied for many years and have fallen into disrepair.
“We’ve been in talks with UHL about purchasing these units for several months, in order to bring them back into meaningful use and benefit local people by providing badly-needed affordable housing.
“The next step will be appointing contractors so that work can get underway on transforming these buildings and giving them a new lease of life.
“Money from Right to Buy house purchases gets returned to the Government unless we put it to use ourselves, so by investing it in creating more affordable housing we are ensuring the money stays within Leicester and helps local people who need it most.”
The work is the latest phase in creating more affordable homes in Leicester, which has already seen a council housebuilding programme creating dozens of new homes on vacant parcels of land in communities across the city over the last two years, with a range of sites also identified for the second phase of housebuilding.