A HOUSING strategy and business plan put before Wear Valley councillors today marks a fresh start for the district's 5,850 tenants.

New housing director Michael Laing is asking for backing for changes which, he says, will improve a key service in the most deprived rural district in England.

Two of its wards have some of the worst housing in the country and generally people in Wear Valley earn less, have fewer job opportunities and have poor health and education records.

But cuts in Government funding last year meant that the department had to save £600,000 by shedding ten jobs and cutting its residential warden service for the elderly and infirm. Empty homes are being bulldozed because nobody wants to live in them.

The new strategy, says Mr Laing, will help reverse the decline by meeting changing housing needs and attracting investment. It aims to maximise rent income, allocate homes fairly on the basis of need and community sustainability, manage the service well and provide properties which are in a good state of repair and warm, comfortable and energy-efficient.

The council is addressing problems of anti-social behaviour on estates and wants to involve tenants through extra resources, training and a newsletter.

Surveys conducted throughout the district found that fewer people are applying for council accommodation making properties harder to let.

Young people, especially, see renting as a short-term option and more can afford to buy their own homes.

Less than one in three couples, either with or without children, now apply for council housing and there are no plans to take on more family homes.

Instead the council is working with outside groups including housing associations to cater for the elderly, the disabled, homeless young people and single teenage parents.

At the same time millions of pounds in Government and other funding is being spent on housing renewal, sports action and healthy living initiatives as well as major Single Regeneration Budget programmes in the areas around Bishop Auckland, Crook, Willington and Tow Law.

Council leader Olive Brown said: "It is a time of new beginnings in Wear Valley. We have started a process of radical change and renewal.

"Wear Valley faces major challenges but we will overcome them with determination, skill and enthusiasm. We will work with our community to find practical solutions."