Pod-style housing could be built in a Mid Wales village in a bid to keep costs down. Residents are being invited to view the plans and give their opinions.

The exhibition will be the first act by Castle Caereinion’s community land trust since it was registered.

The trust plans to build 10 affordable housing units on a site behind the village’s primary school.

Jonathan Brown, of Land For People, the company which helped set up the trust, said: “The aim of the trust is to provide a vehicle to deliver affordable housing for local people.

“They are now looking at plans to see what form a development might take, and want to show the plans to the community and get views.”

He said part of the exhibition would show off a self-contained “copod”, built by Elements Europe of Oswestry, one of the firms keen to bid for a construction contract, showing a complete kitchen and bathroom with all the appliances, plumbing and electricity already installed.

Mr Brown said: “Elements Europe’s raison d’etre is building bits of pre-fab homes, to bring down the cost of building housing.

“The pods are built as complete units, and they’re also energy efficient.

“We’re extremely interested in this, and my company is working to see if this company can apply these pods as part of a design, if they won the contract.”

Wayne Morgan, of Elements Europe, said the “copod” was an award-winning system to help deliver low-cost affordable housing.

“It removes the necessity to have plumbers, electricians and other secondary workers on-site because everything is completely finished,” he said. The exhibition is at Castle Caereinion Community Hall on March 31, from 1pm to 5pm.