RESIDENTS have received an unexpected gift after a council promised to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds upgrading their homes.
Derwentside District Council is to carry out structural repairs to 79 houses in Dunelm Walk and Dunelm Way, Leadgate, near Consett.
A survey found that the concrete support posts of the Drury-type homes were crumbling away. The work is estimated to cost between £4,000 and £11,000 per house.
The council houses were built in the 1960s and about half are still rented out by the local authority. The others are owned by former tenants, who purchased them through the Right to Buy scheme introduced in the 1980s.
However, council chiefs have voted to pay the bill for repairs to all the houses, regardless of ownership.
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