A SURVEY which singles out a North-East street as the cheapest in the land been branded "ridiculous" after research centred on homes marked for demolition.

Tower Green, in Middlesbrough, has been labelled as the cheapest in England and Wales, with an average price of only £21,290.

But most of the properties in the street have been reduced to rubble as part of a regeneration project in the St Hilda's area of the town.

Property information provider, mouseprice.com, has released a table of the top 20 lowest priced homes in the nation. The company says it has based the survey on average valuations and previous sales since April 2000.

Last night, Middlesbrough ward councillor John McPartland called the survey "silly and pointless".

He said: "If people elsewhere believe that these figures reflect the house values across the town, it shows how ridiculous this table is.

"For many years now, the prices of houses in St Hilda's have been lower than any other part of the town.

"And now that we have the issue of demolition, the prices would be even lower. But before the demolition orders, the prices would not have been this low."

The internet company, which re-sells Land Registry data to would-be house buyers, says the figures reveal a continued North-South divide that affects both the bottom and top end of the property market. An examination of sale prices, in streets where at least five properties have been sold since April 2000, show that the top 20 cheapest streets are in the North-East, the North-West, Yorkshire or Humberside.

Selwyn Lim, managing director of mouseprice.com, said: "Our least expensive streets table tells a story, in part, of demolition and regeneration."

"These tables have not been released for members of the public to base buying decisions upon, but with so much media attention on how expensive property has become in England and Wales, these tables have been released to prompt discussion on the variations in property values.