Planning permission has been granted for the first council houses in the country to be made from straw. North Kesteven District Council has approved the application for a pair of semi-detached houses to be built at Martin in Lincolnshire.

The houses have been designed by amazonails from Todmorden, West Yorkshire – the not-for-profit company devoted to promoting environmentally-friendly building techniques, especially straw bales. Both properties will be built using straw bales as the structural element. Walls will be plastered with lime and have conventional windows and roofs.

The three-bedroom family homes will look like conventional brick-built properties and will be the first ‘typical affordable council houses’ to be built by a local authority using strawbale construction.

Because of the high insulation values of straw the properties will be up to three times better insulated than building regulations require. They will not need heating systems; however, wood burning stoves will be installed for very cold weather.

Leader of North Kesteven District Council, Cllr Mrs Marion Brighton OBE, said: “I am very pleased that planning permission has been granted for the straw houses and I am very much looking forward to seeing them being built.

“The district council not only hopes to share its expertise and knowledge with other organisations, but also with residents by inviting them to come and watch the whole process of the houses being built. The straw houses are the first of their kind to be used as social housing in the country and are one of the ways the district council is providing much-needed affordable housing.”

• Barbara Jones, founder and director of amazonails, has been named Woman of Outstanding Achievement 2009 by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC). The company name is derived from the Yorkshire vernacular (’ammers an nails), added to the fact it was founded to encourage women into construction.