Work is underway to demolish a block of council flats to make way for a £12million development.

Permission was granted to knock down 26 apartments in St Patrick’s Gardens and St Columba’s Close, Gravesend, by Gravesham council last year.

Pictures of the site this week show mountains of rubble and bricks piling up next to a half-standing block of flats as the units are demolished by contractors Greenfield.

The council will be replacing the apartments and houses with 46 new properties including 34 flats, six houses and six maisonettes to create more family accommodation.

Of the new homes, 26 will be for social rent and 20 will be affordable rent.

The development, which is valued at £12.8 million, will also include new vehicle and pedestrian access, amenity space including a play area and outdoor gym equipment, bin storage, 58 cycle spaces and 34 parking spaces.

It is expected to be finished in spring 2026 and will be available to households on the local authority’s housing register with an identified housing need.

It forms part of the council’s long-term regeneration strategy as it looks to redevelop its own substandard accommodation and turn brownfield or underused sites into affordable homes.

The current properties were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The new homes will have increased levels of insulation, ground source heat pump heating, solar panels and more energy and carbon emission efficiency.

The flats in St Patrick's Gardens and St Columba's Close were occupied by council tenants but following an extensive consultation, all residents were found alternative accommodation in line with their needs.

The project is also part of an ongoing programme to build hundreds of new council-owned homes in Gravesham and follows the opening of its latest development in Armoury Drive, Gravesend, last month.

The local authority has also already built a similar project nearby where 36 bedsits were knocked down to make way for 48 new homes off Valley Drive.

Elsewhere in the borough, construction has also started for the second phase of Bellway London’s Harbour Village development in Northfleet.

The next part of the scheme will see 130 new homes, featuring a mix of two, three, and four-bedroom houses, built on land east of College Road, at the former Northfleet Cement Works.

Sales director at Bellway London Emma Denton, said: “With the first rows of bricks laid on several plots, we are already seeing the homes in phase two at Harbour Village starting to take shape.”

The scheme, which will have 90 private and 40 affordable properties, is due to be completed in May next year.

Harbour Village is part of the wider Ebbsfleet Garden City project, which is expected to create around 15,000 homes.

It will also host restaurants, bars, shops, commercial and office space, schools, and a community centre.