LUXURY waterfront flats are being rented out to the needy for as little as £53 a week, it cen be revealed today.

LUXURY waterfront flats are being rented out to the needy for as little as £53 a week, it cen be revealed today.

The bargain basement price, less than the cost of filling up a Ford Mondeo, is available to scores of people on the council's housing register as part of a deal struck by town chiefs.

In total there are currently around 134 waterfront properties being rented out to people on the council's housing register which includes single mums and the out of work.

This figure is set to surge to more than 300 as current and future developments, including Regatta Quay and Cranfield Mill, are completed.

Plush single-bedroom flats, which can cost private buyers upwards of £150,000, incurring a mortgage of potentially more than £1,200-a-month, are being snapped up for just £212 a month on the housing register.

Meanwhile lavish dockside four bedroom-homes are available for just £328 a month.

The situation is possible because the law says new developments must include social housing.

Ipswich Borough Council is making construction firms designate a quarter of all homes on developments as affordable housing with 35 per cent of these available for shared ownership and 65 pc for rented social housing.

For a development like Cranfield Mills, which has around 340 flats, around 55 flats will be let on the housing register with a further 30 being available for shared ownership.

Steven Wells, responsible for housing at Ipswich Borough Council, said developers were initially reluctant to offer social housing, arguing they wanted to be able to market properties as “exclusive apartments”.

“The stance we take is we have a duty of care to provide as many affordable homes as we possibly can,” he said.

“There are some people who are living in what would be very expensive properties, if on the open market, at social rented levels.”

Mr Wells said some developers choose to offer the council cash to develop specialist affordable housing sites elsewhere in the town rather than incorporate them into existing schemes.

Do you benefit from cheap rents on the Waterfront? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

1 bedroom flat £53 a week - £212 a month

2 bedroom flat £67 a week - £268 a month

3 bedroom house £71 a week - £284 a month

4 bedroom house £82 a week - £328 a month