HOMES in Oswaldtwistle renovated for first time buyers were sold to a housing association for £50,000 each, it has now emerged.

Six homes in Blackpool Street and South Street were bought by the council as part of a regeneration project, aimed helping young families get on to the property ladder.

Last year, five were sold to a housing association for a total of £250,000. The other was sold privately for £65,000.

Peter Britcliffe’s Conservative-led council spent a total of £505,424 buying the properties in 2004 and renovating them, figures obtained by the Lancashire Telegraph showed.

Work was carried out on the properties’ kitchens, bathrooms, rewiring, heating systems, doors and windows.

A further £59,404 was spent on environmental works in the area, and £261,879 was spent on a facelift project.

Coun Britcliffe said: “The idea was to restore these houses and sell them at a reasonable price to people trying to get on the property ladder, and at the same time, save the street which was in danger of becoming moribund.”

But the six properties were later sold by the Labour-led council for £315,000 – for a loss of £190,424.

Deputy leader of Hyndburn Council, Coun Clare Pritchard, confirmed the properties were sold around 12 months ago.

Coun Britcliffe said: “They’ve been sold to a housing association. There was one private sale at £65,000 and the others have been sold to a housing association for £50,000 each.”

Labour Hyndburn MP Graham Jones said: “As a result of a poorly designed, and wasteful regeneration scheme six prop- erties in Blackpool Street and South Shore Street were sold at a huge loss to the council taxpayer.”