FIFTY-ONE houses are to be bought and then knocked down at a cost of more than £2.3 million to the taxpayer.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to buy the homes surrounding the derelict Churchill China site in Cobridge to kick-start a stalled development.

The houses would be cleared then handed to housing association Great Places Housing Group for redevelopment.

Funding for the project will come from Government agency Renew North Staffordshire.

It comes as the council also wants £2 million from Renew to help pay for roads, sewers and landscaping on the new housing estate.

It is hoped the infrastructure and the first phase of the development can be completed in three years.

That will then free up a site which already has planning permission for 110 privately-owned homes.

Great Places has secured planning permission for all three phases. They are:

Building 21, one-, two- and three-storey affordable houses along Furnival Street;

Building an old people's complex fronting on to Waterloo Road;

Building 110 private homes on the former Churchill site.

But it has emerged the masterplan includes buying 51 houses on the fringes of the area.

Negotiations have started with families in 40 properties in Douglas Street and Crane Street, seven in Furnival Street and four in Blackwells Row.

Remaining residents will be offered the market value of homes, plus 10 per cent, as officials persuade them to sell.

Officials will not say how much the entire project will cost. But latest Land Registry figures price terrace houses in the area at around £46,000.

Using those figures, buying 51 properties would cost more than £2.3 million.

That does not include the cost of clearing the area and the extra money residents will be offered to sell up.

Cabinet member for regeneration Councillor Brian Ward, pictured below, said: "This will transform an area of Cobridge that is in great need of attention.

"It will bring investment, create new homes and help cement a sense of community by bringing much-needed facilities to the area.

"We want to see work begin as soon as possible, and the £2 million funding from Renew would help to kick-start development.

"The scheme is planned over a number of phases, the first two of which will have very limited market sale, so the project needs grant support to cover infrastructure costs.

"These are not covered by the Homes and Communities Agency's grant support for social housing."

The Renew funding will be provided over the next two years.