A developer has pledged to start work on an affordable housing scheme on the edge of Diss next month, despite submitting amendments to the project.Planning permission for 114 homes on the boundary of Diss and Roydon was narrowly approved by district councillors two years ago.

A developer has pledged to start work on an affordable housing scheme on the edge of Diss next month, despite submitting amendments to the project.

Planning permission for 114 homes on the boundary of Diss and Roydon was narrowly approved by district councillors two years ago.

But the owner of the site at agricultural land, off Denmark Lane, is set to begin construction work in February after making slight alterations to the layout of the plans.

Officials from Linford C-zero, which bought the land from Hayes Affordable Homes, said the amendments included an increase in the footprint of some of the low-cost homes to make the development more sustainable.

Eighty-seven of the discounted flats and houses will be made available to local people and another 15 units will be rented out to Flagship Housing Group tenants. When completed, a three-bed house could cost �99,000 and a two-bed property about �85,000.

Robert Pearson, director of Linford C-zero, said the 'technical' amendments, which had been submitted to South Norfolk Council, would help 'improve' the development to make it more energy-efficient.

'We are basically making sure all the scheme is designed to current sustainable home standards. If we can get all the units sold, it opens the door for other potential schemes elsewhere,' he said.

The Birmingham-based developer was last month granted �3m from the government's Low Carbon Investment Fund towards the �15m project.

Anyone interested in the discounted homes is asked to e-mail robert@czero.com