Four thousand council homes have been modernised since the City of Lincoln Council embarked on its Decent Homes programme in 2006.

New kitchens, bathrooms, plumbing and electrics have been put into around half of the council owned properties to bring them up to the government's 'decent' standard.

The tenants at the 4,000th property, Mr and Mrs Booth of Macaulay Drive, St Giles, will help to celebrate the milestone with other tenants, workers and partners involved with the project on Monday 16th November.

Russell Clarke, Head of Maintenance and Investment for the City of Lincoln Council said: "The national target for council properties to reach the standard is 2010, and the Lincoln project is well underway, with our contractors Kier working on kitchens, bathrooms, electrics and structural work, while Aaron Services installs new plumbing and boiler systems and does gas servicing.

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"Not all council homes needed to be updated, and some needed more work than others, but by the end of the programme next year, 5,143 will have been renovated to some extent."

Another milestone was reached in the summer, with the installation of the 1,000th boiler by Aaron Services.

Kier operations manager, Mark George said: "Kier has been working in partnership with the City Council and Aaron Services on the Decent Homes contract for more than three years and has worked in nine of the 10 areas of the city. St Giles is the ninth area, which has led us up to the 4,000th landmark property being complete in November 2009. The remainder of the programme will continue into and to the end of 2010 when the partnership will have made decent more than 5,000 homes in Lincoln."

The Decent Homes partners have been heavily involved with the community throughout all of the work. The scheme has been a big boost for the local economy, with more than 300 local people employed either as contractors, permanent employees or apprentices.

(CD)