RESIDENTS of former mining villages have welcomed a housing study that will pinpoint how to regenerate their communities.

Kevan Jones, MP for North Durham, commissioned the survey in a bid to arrest the decline in North-East pit villages.

The study, by students from the School of Built Environment at Northumbria University in Newcastle, looks at the former mining communities of South Moor and Craghead near Stanley, and Grange Villa.

Mr Jones said: "There has been very little research into what has happened to communities in villages live Craghead and Grange Villa after the demise of the coal industry.

"Low demand and private landlord housing is of great concern, but other areas have also been identified which will be of relevance to a number of authorities, including police and health bodies.

"I hope the launch of the study will see ways emerge in which we can all start working with the local communities to improve the environment."

He will announce the results of the housing study at Craghead Village Hall, on Thursday, August 29, at 11am.

Jeannette Thompson, secretary of the South Moor Partnership, welcomed the move. "A lot of people at the bottom end of South Moor who have mortgages have seen their property devalued," she said. "That is down to the problems we have got.

"We all suffer from out-of-town landlords who don't care about the area and don't care who they put in their houses.

"Bad housing can mean bad health. We hope the study will help bring housing up to a reasonable living standard."

Trevor Dixon, head of the Derwentside Private Landlords Association, said no one had involved his group in the study. "They are making private landlords the scapegoats," he said.

He said the association was already working to combat the problem.