Bradford has more than 14,500 private houses which are unfit to live in, a report reveals today.

Thousands of people are living in squalor in damp, rotten slum conditions, with many houses needing severe structural repairs, and some still with outside toilets.

And now a massive slum clearance programme has been put forward as a radical solution to the problem.

The Council report says unfit houses account for ten per cent of the district's owner-occupied houses or seven per cent of the total housing stock.

Most are in multiple-occupation and many are home to inner city families living in cramped and miserable conditions. Bradford has a legacy of row upon row of Victorian terraces, where little progress seems to have been made since a private survey four years ago showed similar figures.

Today Anil Singh, director of the Manningham Housing Association, said the situation had got so bad the only solution was for Bradford Council to demolish the most run-down streets.

He said: "It used to be thought that owner-occupation was an indicator of wealth and prosperity, but the reality is quite different.

"High levels of owner-occupation amongst the ethnic minority population have been achieved at a huge social cost of massive overcrowding and extremely poor conditions. They do not have the resources to maintain or repair their homes.

"The Council needs to declare maybe six streets over the next ten years should be demolished, and pay the owners relocation grants. We need a strategic approach. Some of these areas are absolute slums and should be demolished. It may seem heavy handed, but there are packages where owners can be recompensed."

The Council admits the decaying homes are a "huge problem" but there are insufficient funds to tackle the crisis. Officials say the Government capital allocation which could have been used to tackle private sector housing was cut by 19 per cent from 1998-99 to about £4 million.

Housing committee chairman Councillor Steve Thomas said the Council was aware of the problem. But he said the figure of 15,000 in the survey four years ago did not have the same criteria and was misleading.

The backlog of old grants would end in April and a new scheme would start with more people getting less cash for improvements to spread grants wider.

Coun Imran Khan (Lab, University) said: "I hear from residents every day, people asking for housing grants, they say their walls are leaking, rain is coming in or walls are cracking up. Many of these people are in low-paid jobs, they have large families and the money they earn they tend to spend supporting the family - not on house repairs."

A Bradford Council housing spokesman said the Council had the powers to improve or demolish housing affecting people's health or welfare.

"But the authority does not have the resources to take action on all the unfit homes," he said.

Jan Curry, co-ordinator for Chas Housing Aid in Bradford, said: "There is a big problem with low income owner-occupiers. They can't maintain their homes on benefits."

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