The flat will be to rent or shared-ownership and should be available next year. In a symbolic gesture on Wednesday morning, Cllr Joy Hughes, Rother cabinet portfolio holder for housing, clambered onto a demolition contractor's digger at the Buckhurst Road site. Because of the recession, Rother and Orbit have taken over the stalled private development project at Hollenden House. With the private housing market in stagnation and home-buyers either struggling to obtain a mortgage or to maintain mortgage repayments, demand for social housing is rocketing. Rother has 1,700 home-seekers on its housing register. Cllr Hughes was joined at Wednesday's photo-call by Orbit's development officer Cheryl Creaser, Rother policy and development manager Alison Spring, James Ford of demolition contractors Fordwick and Ivan White and Gordon Ritchie of developers Gem Select. Fordwick hope to have the former Embankment Fellowship ex-service home razed to the ground within the next three weeks '“ weather permitting. Gem Select estimate that it will take about a year for them to complete the construction of the 42-flat first phase of the site's development. Rother is investing 500,000 to the project's total design and build cost of almost 6m. The site was originally intended to provide market housing, with a 40 per cent share of the development being affordable homes. When market difficulties caused the scheme to stall, Rother District Council and Orbit Housing Association agreed to support the development. Cllr Hughes said: "I am absolutely delighted as we have wanted this to happen for a long time. "We have got to make more affordable housing and this development will help that." Cheryl Creaser said: "It is a fantastic opportunity to provide more housing and shows what a fabulous partnership we have with Rother District Council."