THOUSANDS of former council tenants

will get much-needed improvements worth £20 million as part of a pioneering project.

People on the Hillock Estate, Whitefield, have a new landlord after their homes were officially transferred from Manchester Council to the Rivers Housing Association.

Work will start on the 1,011 houses in August and the three-year improvement programme includes new or upgraded central heating, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and double glazed uPVC windows.

New bathrooms and kitchens, front and back doors, burglar alarms, porch roofs and pitched canopies have also been agreed after tenants thrashed out a deal. For the next five years rents will rise by inflation plus £1-a-week to pay for the work.

The city council's cash-strapped housing department admitted in 1998 that it did not have the resources to modernise the estate and that a large-scale voluntary transfer was on the cards. A steering group was set up involving residents and both Manchester and Bury councillors to choose a landlord and get the best deal. Tenants voted overwhelmingly in November to sell their estate off lock, stock and barrel for £2 million to Rivers, made up of the Housing Association and West Pennine Housing Association.

They will now sit alongside councillors and representatives from Rivers on a management committee.

The deeds for the estate were handed over on Monday (April 3) and a new housing office, converted in just three weeks, was opened by the leader of Bury Council, Derek Boden.

He said it was a time to celebrate as the housing association had greater access to funding for improvements and was more accountable and democratic that its predecessor

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