A NEW £15 million neighbourhood in Accrington is ready to welcome its first families.

Five homes in Nuttall Street, in the heart of the Woodnook regeneration project, have been completed and will have new tenants before Christmas.

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The news is a landmark in the project to bring 130 empty properties back into use as fair value, energy-efficient homes in Nuttall Street, Booth Street, Hudson Street, Augusta Street and Royds Street.

Advertised online, the houses are being marketed as available from Monday, November 24 but are only being made available to working households.

One of the three-bedroom homes will be rented out for £495 a month by Accrington letting agent rent-the-house, property website Zoopla said.

Chair of the regeneration and housing panel at Hyndburn Council, Coun Clare Cleary, said final steps were being taken before residents move in.

She said: "Some are two houses knocked through into one and some are two-bedroomed. They really have transformed the houses. I used to live in Booth Street 30 years ago and they were poor even then.

"They are really different, it's not just a refurbishment. The actual specification of the houses are fantastic. They're like a new home with the insulation and double-glazing."

Show homes in Hudson and Augusta Street were shown off by empty homes developer PlaceFirst, Together Housing Group, and Hyndburn Council earlier this year.

Coun Cleary said the homes were targeted at working families, and not those in receipt of benefits, and said she hopes similar projects will take place elsewhere in the borough in the future.

She said: "It will be for people paying a private rent who can't get a mortgage. It's not a social housing scheme, it's for working couples and families.

"Woodnook is a bit unique because it's an area that deteriorated over the years. This was one of PlaceFirst's first schemes and it was a new foray into private housing but it would be fantastic if we could do this in Spring Hill and places of deprivation.

"But it's a long-winded process. It has taken a few years but it's coming together now."