A housing association has pledged to get families into their homes by September – after paperwork for drainage delayed the move date by eight months.

Cambs Times: Sian Bond is living with her mum Tina Thompson until her Sanctuary Housing property is ready.Sian Bond is living with her mum Tina Thompson until her Sanctuary Housing property is ready. (Image: Archant)

Families ended tenancy agreements and prepared to move into the new Sanctuary Homes estate off Gaul Road, March, by January 6.

But paperwork was not correctly filled out, leaving the homes unfinished and people in a dilemma of where to live until the properties are ready.

Councillor Jan French said: “I am furious that families are being put under stress having to live with family members or finding other short-term rents.

“Roddons started a new build at the same time as Sanctuary in Elliott Road and already 20 families are moved into the 60-home estate.

“So why has Sanctuary taken so long? I hope the promise to move in by September is kept to the families.”

Sanctuary Housing is building 52 homes off Gaul Road but issues with paperwork with two major agencies has slowed down completion of the estate.

The two agencies where Sanctuary has not correctly completed paperwork are Middle Level Commissioners and Anglian Water.

Iain Smith, chief executive of Middle Level, said there were problems with two pieces of paperwork.

He said: “They hadn’t applied for consent to discharge foul water into the system and they hadn’t supplied detailed plans of how they intend to cross private water courses.”

Anglian Water said that Sanctuary put in an original application a year ago but it was missing details so there was “a fair bit of back and forth as the gaps were filled in”.

The application was approved on February 3 this year and sent to Sanctuary’s lawyers on May 15 to be signed.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said it was still waiting for the paperwork to be signed and returned.

“At first the paperwork was missing key elements. It’s taken this length of time to ensure everything is in order,” he said.

A spokesman for Sanctuary Housing said: “We are very sorry for the delay to let these homes, which has occurred because it took longer than anticipated to gain agreement to connect these new properties to the drainage system.

“Now that we, our developers and the local agencies have come to a resolution we are focusing all efforts on completing the homes as quickly as possible, and we will be providing future residents with regular updates so that they are kept fully informed of progress.”