WORK has been completed on the first 1,000 homes to benefit from a project to rid Redcar and East Cleveland of fuel poverty.

Warm Zone is a project that was set up last year with the aim of carrying out work in 25,000 homes in the borough in the next two-and-a-half-years.

Kirkleatham residents were the first to benefit from loft or cavity insulation while those in Newcomen were not far behind.

The project, which is backed by Transco, British Gas, Coast and Country Housing and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, is well on its way to completing its second thousand.

Warm Zone director Alex Cunningham said: "Everyone from the assessors to the installation companies worked extremely hard to get as many homes done as possible before the end of the last year."