Homes in Shirley have been left without power due to a fault with Scottish and Southern Electricity Network’s (SSEN) underground network.

It’s unclear how many households have been affected with SSEN stating “several homes” are without power, with the issue expected to be resolved by 11.30pm tonight.

Homes could be without power for more than six hours, with the outage first reported at around 4.45pm this afternoon.

In a statement, a spokesperson for SSEN said: “We’re aware of a fault on our local network affecting several homes.

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“That means that you and some of your neighbours will be affected by the power cut, but not all. It’s not uncommon to see one in three homes affected.”

SSEN confirmed that engineers are on the way to the area to deal with the fault and attempt to restore power in Shirley, affecting homes in the SO15 postcode region, reported to be on Suffolk Avenue and Howard Road.

The SSEN spokesperson added: “The cause of the power cut is a fault on our underground network.

“This is the most common type of fault we see, and our teams are very experienced in dealing with these issues.

“In most cases, our engineers are able to get your power back on by simply replacing a fuse at the local substation, however, if the fault is severe, it may take us longer to fix. If this does happen, we will let you know.”