New lease of life for boarded-up homes

EMPTY houses in Cambridge Street will be brought back into use

Oldham Council Cabinet
MORE than 30 derelict terrace houses in an area blighted by an axed regeneration programme are to be leased to a housing association... for £1!

32 boarded-up homes in Cambridge, Durham, Lynn and Suffolk streets — all south Werneth — will be leased to Great Places Housing Group for 99 years, to bring them back into use.

Great Places will use almost £2million of private and public funding to renovate the houses for rental.

The properties were bought by Oldham Council as part of the multi-million Housing Market Renewal programme to transform Werneth, Derker and Freehold. The funding was controversially axed by the Goverment in 2010, leaving residents living next to boarded-up houses.

Councillor David Hibbert, Cabinet member for housing, said it had been "disgraceful behaviour" to stop HMR at such short notice.

“This is an attempt to deal with the mess left by that and the HMR legacy," he added.