More homes in Bensham are receiving a major facelift as the area's regeneration gathers pace.

Gateshead Council has begun a series of major works to more than 60 homes in Windsor Avenue, Bensham as part of an ongoing improvement scheme. Over two-thirds of the homes singled out for improvement in the area are taking part in the scheme.

Almost 200 other dwellings in the area, including homes in and around Saltwell Road, Hyde Park Street and Bensham Avenue, have also been invited to take part in the scheme and will receive improvements such as new boundary walls with stone copings, metal railings and gates - reinstating what had originally been removed at the start of the Second World War.

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Properties will also have alterations and improvements to their existing windows and doors, including the restoration of stone mullions to some properties, and repairs to guttering.

The improvements are being carried out as part of a wider regeneration of the Bensham and Saltwell area which is seeing substantial new investment in existing properties, new housing, environmental improvements and better services.

The work will be carried out as a Block Improvement Scheme, enabling work to be carried out to a number of properties in the same street by one contractor as a single contract. This has already proved to be an efficient and cost-effective way to carry out improvements - the work had originally been scheduled for 2010 but major cost savings achieved as a result of the Block Improvement Scheme have allowed Gateshead Council to quicken the pace of the programme.

The improvements, which are being jointly funded by Gateshead Council and Bridging NewcastleGateshead, the government’s Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder, requires homeowners and landlords to fund only 20% of the cost of the work.

To qualify for this grant aid, private landlords are also required to carry out additional improvement works to their properties to bring them up to a higher standard and to demonstrate that they are managing their property and tenancy properly

(CD/BMcC)