£90m bid to finish upgrade on Wolverhampton homes

A bid for £90 million is being made to complete work that will bring every council house in Wolverhampton up to standards.

The £412 million Decent Homes project is £100m short of what council housing company Wolverhampton Homes needs to finish the remaining 7,773 homes of 23,500 in the city.

Wolverhampton Homes and Wolverhampton City Council have to re-apply for money they had previously been expecting to get through borrowing after the government changed the criteria.

Housing chief Councillor Peter Bilson said: "This is a bid for some £90m to complete some of our Decent Homes programme.

"There will still be a number of properties that require a different approach (such as flats) and other works.

"This reflects something like a 10 per cent reduction in money promised to Wolverhampton. We want to work with Wolverhampton Homes to ensure tenants benefit from this."

The work is to bring houses up to 21st century standards with modern kitchens, bathrooms and heating.