A HOUSING group is celebrating modernising 10,000 homes to a standard it has set itself.

The Sunderland Housing Group's benchmark exceeds the Government's Decent Homes Standard - a set of measures laid down by central government for decent housing.

The completion of its latest modernisation puts it ahead of its own targets for improving all of the homes it transferred from Sunderland City Council in 2001.

Group chief executive Peter Walls celebrated the achievement with a presentation of flowers and gifts to Sunderland Housing Group customer Christina Carr, whose home in Silksworth was the 10,000th to be modernised.

He said: "When we transferred the homes from the council three years ago, we promised we would modernise them.

"We have been modernising them, we still are modernising homes, and we will not stop modernising them until the works are complete.

"We are looking forward to the day when we can say all are complete to a higher standard than that recommended by the Government."

Sunderland Housing Group spent £11,000 upgrading Mrs Carr's home.

Works included a new kitchen, bathroom, wiring, internal doors, a smoke detector, rear security light, and fencing.