SOME 300 former council house tenants have been told repairs to their homes have been put on hold for a year.

Now a group headed by a tenants' association is considering legal action to get the work done at homes on the Roman Road estate, Blackburn.

But the company which took over the properties, Twin Valley Homes, today said it had no option but to delay the repair programme because it was faced with a huge bill to remove asbestos from 100 homes in another part of Blackburn.

And it warned a mass legal action could force rents to rise.

Repairs on the Roman Road estate had been pencilled in to take place in the 2003/04 financial year.

The company, formed out of Blackburn with Darwen Council's housing department when it was placed in the private sector two years ago, has had to divert more than £2.8million into a project to remove asbestos from homes in the Delph Lane area of Blackburn.

More than £1million of that has come from the Roman Road repair programme. The improvements would have included new windows, exterior doors and repairs to roofs.

Kevin Dunne, vice chairman of the Roman Road Tenants Association, said: "We have been promised these new windows and doors for a long time and the old ones just aren't good enough.

"Last year, we were promised it would happen this year, but it hasn't. They sent a woman up and she wasn't even apologetic about it. It was 'take it or leave it.'

"If they could have assured us we would get the windows next year, it wouldn't be so bad, but they won't do that now.

"Solicitors are looking at it now and will take it on if £1,000 of work needs doing in each home."

Solicitors have been targeting Twin Valley homes across the borough over the last 12 months trying to persuade people to start legal action against the company, which is to spend more than £100million over five years improving homes.

Twin Valley has so far only had a 'trickle' of legal threats on behalf of tenants.

But the cost of dealing with such letters has been £45,000 in the last three months alone -- which the company says could have paid for 20 new kitchens or 12 homes with new windows and doors.

Phil Richards, chief executive of Twin Valley Homes, said: "We would urge people to bear with us. The real problems would start if we received a massive number of complaints.

"That could damage the whole programme of repairs and that would be to everyone's detriment. We would have to look to getting extra money, maybe through rent if we had no other choice."

Gwyneth Sarkar, director of housing, added: "At the time of transfer we promised to deliver £101million of home improvements in the first five years.

"Managing the biggest ever programme of home improvements for Blackburn and Darwen requires some flexibility. We are delivering our promises, but due to a number of unforeseen, essential works in other areas, including the asbestos problem, we have had to make some adjustments to the schedule.

"Over 300 customers on Roman Road will benefit from nearly £3million of internal and external improvements when the work starts in 2004."

Val Gollop, secretary of the tenants association, added: "We don't want to do it but no effort was made to warn us and the work really needs doing."