DERELICT houses are to be demolished and families in The Tees Valley rehomed in a £6.2m revamp of deprived estates.

The funding, announced yesterday will replace money allocated to housing schemes originally earmarked for development under the Government’s dissolved Housing Market Renewal programme (HMR).

It will enable the relocation of residents from the Carr and Hopps Street area in Hartlepool, Gresham and St Hilda’s in Middlesbrough, the Parkfield area of Stockton and a small number of properties in South Bank, Redcar & Cleveland.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: "Under the previous controversial scheme, local communities in some of the most deprived areas of the country were told they would see a transformation of their areas. But in reality, this amounted to bulldozing buildings and knocking down neighbourhoods, pitting neighbour against neighbour, demolishing our Victorian heritage and leaving families trapped in abandoned streets. This programme was a failure and an abject lesson to policy makers.”

The Tees Valley, Merseyside, East Lancashire, North Staffordshire and Hull will share a pot of £35.5 million, which is being match funded by local authories.

Middlesbrough is receiving a total of £4.8m, Hartlepool will scoop £4m, Stockton is allocated £3m and Redcar & Cleveland’s share is £600,000.

Councillor Charles Rooney, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “Our residents are already fully aware of our ambitions to continue this project and this funding is a real boost to enable us to do that.”

Redcar MP, Ian Swales, added: "I hope this money will help councils deal with the housing blight that we can still see in some of our communities. I am delighted that the Government has once again shown its backing for our area."

Stockton South MP, James Wharton said the cash was a substantial investment to improving housing stock, especially in the Parkfield and Oxbridge areas of his constituency.

“These improvements will help to lift local families out of fuel poverty and make a real difference to quality of life and energy bills,” he added.