Six key workers including a teacher, a social worker and hospital staff have been helped onto the property ladder with half-price homes.

The public sector workers are moving into a subsidised development in Tangmere, near Chichester, where their mortgages are only 54 per cent of market value.

Their new homes have been partly funded under the government's Starter Homes Initiative to help health workers and teachers buy homes within reasonable travelling distance of their workplaces.

One of those to benefit was Jennifer Robinson, senior radiographer at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester.

She said: "I am delighted with my new home which I would not have been able to buy without this opportunity."

Chichester District Council leader Jane Chevis said: "The demand for affordable accommodation is growing."