Plans for an £8.6m housing development where the residents help build the homes itself has been submitted to Lewisham Council.

The 33 home project by the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) will be built on a one acre site at the end of Church Grove in Ladywell.

RUSS has been training people in Lewisham through workshops on home construction so they can eventually contribute to the construction of the homes.

The homes range from one to four bedroom properties and divided up between shared ownerships, affordable rent and social housing.

With the people living in the homes helping to build them, this will significantly lower the cost of the properties compared to similar developments.

The homes have been designed as simple and cost effective to build, which helps lower the cost further, and their rent will be reduced because of their contribution to the construction.

RUSS chairman Kareem Dayes said: “We’re delighted we have got our detailed planning application in for the site.

“It’s been a long journey, but after eight years of community effort, huge levels of support from Lewisham Council, the GLA and many other bodies this is a really important milestone.

“Our members have worked tirelessly to get here; and we are now confident that we can achieve our dream of delivering genuinely affordable community-led neighbourhoods right across London. This is the first of, we hope, many similar projects.”

Another way the cost is being kept down is with RUSS working with Lewisham Council to get the site on a 250 year lease. The land will be held in a community land trust, meaning the homes will be valued mainly on the value of the building and not the building and the land.

If the project passes planning permission in the New Year, construction will begin later in 2018 and the homes should be completed by 2020.