Thirty-four council house tenants can look forward to home improvements in the coming weeks after extra funds were secured for the city from the Government.

It is the third time this financial year that additional funding has been granted to Wolverhampton to bring more houses up to the decent homes standard. The £170,000 sum brings the total granted by the Homes and Communities Agency to £1.6 million for 2014/15. On-going improvements have been carried out at council homes across the city as part of the Government’s Decent Homes programme. Wolverhampton was allocated a total £254 million for the programme and the city council which has been complemented by city council funds.

The extra funding has been granted because of the city’s good performance in carrying out the project locally on time and on budget. It has been a partnership between the city council and Wolverhampton Homes.

City of Wolverhampton Housing Leader, Peter Bilson, said: “This is more good news to city housing tenants who will see their homes improved imminently. Our housing team and Wolverhampton Homes have demonstrated a high standard of delivery on this programme and this has been recognised by Government. It is a priority of ours to have good quality affordable homes in the city and all plays a part in regenerating Wolverhampton as a whole.”

Shaun Aldis, Director of Property Services at Wolverhampton Homes added: “We’ve carried out improvements to more than 21,500 homes across the city since this project started back in 2007 – that’s a massive achievement and it’s made a huge difference to thousands of peoples’ lives. The fact that the Government is giving Wolverhampton extra money to carry out some additional work is a reflection on how well the partnership have delivered Decent Homes over the years”.

One recent beneficiary of the improvement programme was Bilston resident Ella Paulin. She said: “It’s fantastic, we can’t thank everyone enough. The improvements have made a huge difference to our lives.”

In the last eight years, over 21,500 properties have been improved as part of the Government’s Decent Homes Standard programme.