NEW housing at RAF Brize Norton will help bring families coping with husbands or wives serving overseas closer together.

Prime Minster and Witney MP David Cameron visited the 42 homes, which were completed last month, to meet the first residents on Friday.

Another 200 family homes will be built by 2016 on a site in Carteron known as Reema North for personnel at what is now the RAF’s largest air station.

Mr Cameron said: “Behind me is a great example of what the RAF is doing to provide better forces accommodation for Brize Norton, and that is hugely valuable. “It has been good to get an update on the plans to knock down and rebuild the less good housing and I’m satisfied there’s a plan.”

Three years ago Mr Cameron told the Oxford Mail that housing military families was one of the biggest issues facing West Oxfordshire.

After the closure of RAF Lyneham in 2011 and the transfer to Brize Norton of an estimated 4,000 personnel in 2011, rents in West Oxfordshire rose as the Ministry of Defence sought to find homes for forces families.

Mr Cameron said: “It’s still a problem but there’s a plan. We’re on track and we have got to stick to that track.”

Wing Commander Justine Morton, of RAF Brize Norton, said: “It was great to see the Prime Minister and it was great to show him our welfare facilities and welfare support people. He takes a great interest in the base and its people.

“The station is growing in size and we needed more accommodation to support that growth in population. This is the start of that.

“We’re moving forward to provide the best support we can to personnel and their families.”

The new houses will be used by families of the station’s sergeants and junior officers.

One of the first to move into Herrick Road – named after the armed forces’ codename for operations in Afghanistan – was Rosie Lester, 30.

Her husband Flight Lieutenant Arthur Lester, 34, is currently overseas on a training exercise and served in Afghanistan last year.

Mrs Lester said: “It’s terrible when he’s on tour. Four months is a long time to be apart from someone you have just settled down with. “You do have a bit of fear when you don’t hear from him because there’s a news blackout and you don’t know what’s going on.

“Just having people around who can be supportive and totally understand your situation is fantastic. You have a lot of support networks and people to call on the base if you have issues.”

On Friday she showed Mr Cameron around her new home.

Mr Cameron asked her about Star Trek after spotting a poster for the film series in her living room.

Mrs Lester said: “He asked whether I had seen the new film.”