AN eco-friendly housing estate costing £1.4m has opened its doors to new tenants.

The 12 three-bedroomed houses have been designed with the highest standard of energy-saving measures available.

All the semi-detached homes have solar panels on the roof to help heat water, high levels of insulation, and recycling bin storage areas. The properties have been built on Thackery Road, following the demolition of flats on part of the site.

The innovative scheme has been constructed to a more rigorous environmentally-friendly benchmark than stipulated by Building Regulations.

It is the first project to be completed to the government Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3 by housing association, Hartlepool Housing.

It takes into account how the project is managed during construction, the materials used, the impact on local ecology and the reduced low levels of energy and water usage once occupied.

The scheme is also the first in the North-East where Homes and Community Agency (HCA) grant has been accessed by the developer.

The £1.4m scheme has received 495,000 of grant funding from the HCA following an application by Dunelm Property Services.

Sarah Fawcett, Housing Hartlepool's Head of Property and Development, said: "These houses will provide much-needed family housing for rent in a popular residential part of Hartlepool.

"We have worked closely with the developer Dunelm Property Services to create homes packed with advanced energy saving features, to help keep costs down for the families who will live there, as well as helping reduce the town's carbon footprint."

Housing Hartlepool company manages 7,000 properties throughout the town and surrounding villages.

These range from five-bedroom family houses to flats for single people and a wide range of bungalows and sheltered housing complexes for the elderly.

Stephen Francis, Managing Director of Dunelm Property Services, said the government was encouraging organisations, other than registered social landlords, to access funding to provide affordable housing.

"We pride ourselves on being at the forefront of progress in the building sector and this is reflected by the fact we are the first private developer in the North-East to have driven a bid for and become a recipient of a Homes & Communities Agency grant," he added.