A total of 155 houses owned by Bernicia on the Sherburn Road estate have had roofs replaced and properly insulated to help tackle problems with cold, damp and condensation.
Contractor Esh Living has delivered the home refurbishments on behalf of Bernicia over the past four months.
Bernicia and Esh Living staff and City of Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods walked the estate to view the properties and talk with residents to get their views on the repairs.
Former pub landlord Ann Anderson has lived on the Sherburn Road estate for 19 years and is registered as disabled due to arthritis. “We’ve had a new roof, boiler and kitchen put in,” she said. “The new roof has made it a lot warmer and the house looks nice and neat outside. The lads from Esh are great lads, good workers. They picked up all the rubbish, the roof tiles from the garden after they has finished, really made it all tidy.”
Neighbour Nicola Barker said: “I was really pleased with the standard of the job that was carried out on my property. They were very polite and tidy and have done a fantastic job.”
Michael Farr, Bernicia Executive Director of Assets and Growth, said: “Tenants told us about the problems they faced living in cold homes, and the difficulties that led to with condensation and damp. We acted on their concerns and put in place a £1m roof replacement programme, fitting insulation and new roof linings to keep more heat in the houses.”
Roberta said: “The fact that Bernicia used a local construction company in Esh Living to do the work is really fabulous. That has not gone unnoticed. It’s a company based in Durham, carrying out a really high standard of workmanship and we’re all very, very happy about this scheme.”
Colin Ford, Construction Director at Esh Living part of Esh Group said; “We believe in constructing local, our head office is located less than 3 miles away from the site and it’s great that Esh Living was chosen to deliver much needed improvement works to over 150 properties on behalf of Bernicia Group in the Durham area.”
Esh Living has delivered first class improvement works to 155 properties and hearing how the work has improved people’s homes makes the team feel proud.”
