A PIONEERING green housing development has been officially opened in a North-East pit village.

Easington MP John Cummings and Durham County Council deputy leader Councillor Alan Napier launched one of the first energy-saving new homes developments in the UK.

Murton House Mews, off Church Street, in Murton, east Durham, has been developed by M&T Developments in conjunction with Sunderlandbased Carbon Logix, a company that uses a revolutionary building system to provide energy- efficient properties.

The development comprises ten properties, ranging from two-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom semidetached homes – all of which boast energy saving features, including rainwater recycling and exhaust air heat pumps which extract air from warm areas to be used elsewhere in the property.

Residents will be able to reduce energy bills by as much as 60 per cent of those of traditionally built properties of the same size.

The homes start at just under £100,000.

Mr Cummings said: “It’s great to see two local companies working so hard to provide new homes that will run on significantly less energy than traditional properties.”