The £24.038 million project will see 90 Passivhaus homes built on the site of the old Newbattle High School in Easthouses.

Contractor Ogilvie Construction is building a mixture of flats, houses and bungalows on behalf of the council, with Smith Scott Mullan Associates acting as architect and designer.

The 90 properties will be among 207 council homes across Midlothian, all designed to the demanding Passivhaus Standard. The buildings retain heat from the sun and require very little additional heating or cooling.

Midlothian Council’s cabinet member for housing, Councillor Stuart McKenzie, said: “It’s really exciting to reach this key milestone.

“The homes will help tackle fuel poverty – our tenants will have life-long low heating bills – while helping us towards our net zero ambitions and we’re really proud of that.

“We’re looking forward to working with Ogilvie on this project, which will not only provide much needed affordable homes for our tenants, but will also bring wider community benefits during the construction phase.”

Grier Edmead, operations director, Ogilvie Construction, said: “We look forward to working with the team at Midlothian Council over the next two years to deliver modern high-quality energy efficient homes that will serve the community for many years to come. We will liaise with the community throughout the build programme, communicating regularly and keeping disruption to a minimum.”

The work is expected to finish in 2025.

Just short of 2,000 council homes have been built or are on site since the council launched its ambitious affordable home programme in 2006.

More than £352m has been invested in building affordable, high-quality, sustainable, and energy-efficient council homes with a further £77.6m committed.

As part of the 2024/25-2028/29 Strategic Housing Improvement Plan (SHIP), the council is committed to building a further 832 homes within the SHIP’s timeframe.