Date set for home improvements

1:57pm Saturday 5th April 2008

Bradford Community Housing Trust says improvements to tenants' homes in Idle will be made during 2010.

The announcement comes in response to complaints from residents that the trust's recently-acquired funding would be used to build new homes and not to renovate existing properties.

Last month the trust, the district's biggest social housing landlord, was allocated grants totalling £10.9m from the Housing Corporation's National Affordable Housing Project.

John Wills, secretary for Idle Village Tenants and Residents Association, said for a number of years residents of Idle village have required new facilities, such as bathrooms and kitchens, for their properties.

He said: "Now they have got this money, some of the £11m should be spent on refurbishing the existing homes in the Idle area instead of building more flats. It would make more sense to do this rather than keeping tenants waiting for them to be done."

A trust spokesman said it wrote to Mr Wills last month to confirm that the trust was due to carry out a programme of improvements, including fitting new bathrooms, kitchens and rewiring work, to tenants' homes in 2010.

He said: "The improvements are part of an extensive modernisation programme which has so far seen more than £175 million invested in BCHT homes in the district.

"These works have been carried out to bring homes up to our Bradford Standard, a level in excess of the Government's Decent Homes Standard.

"We also explained that the recent success in securing over £10.9 million of social housing grant from the Housing Corporation covers funding for new affordable housing in the district. It does not cover improvement work."

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