MORE than £2 million will be spent on repairing and maintaining council houses in Craven.

Over the next year, Craven District Council has earmarked £350,000 to modernise 18 houses and five flats at Hardy Meadows and Chapel Fold Grassington, and £330,000 to improve 24 houses on Northfields Avenue, Settle, and five houses at Riversdale, Giggleswick.

The council will also spend £171,000 on rendering and insulating 54 houses in Cononley, Glusburn, Skipton and Farnhill, and £126,450 on re-roofing houses in Sutton.

In addition, it has allocated £180,000 to modernising 10 two and three bedroom houses in Carleton.

The job will involve fitting new kitchens and bathrooms, updating the electric wiring and gas central heating and re-roofing the properties.

Another £126,000 will finance the modernisation of nine two-bedroom flats at Gregory Flats, Sutton.

A Craven council spokesman said the project would involve sound-proofing as well as fitting kitchens and bathrooms.

In Gargrave, £50,000 will pay for new kitchens, bathrooms, re-wiring, re-roofing and gas central heating in three houses.

An additional £77,000 will finance internal decoration to warden scheme homes at Greatwood Close, Skipton, and the common room at Valley View, Glusburn. Fire protection, emergency lighting and general maintenance will be paid for in all warden schemes.

Over 1,000 properties will be repainted externally at a cost of £83,000, and £24,000 will be spent on replacing original timber windows and doors in new double glazing units in seven bungalows at Roughaw Close, Skipton.

And to improve the quality of life for disabled tenants, £60,000 is to be spent on adapting electrical showers in more than 100 homes throughout the district.