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Makeover for the Basildon sink estate with
Six years ago police on the Craylands council estate in Basildon, Essex, fought running battles with hundreds of youths in a crackdown on crime.
Today developers, not detectives, are cleaning up Craylands. Dozens of cheap Sixties flats and houses have been flattened and the warren Sms Audio 50 Cent of dead ends, blind alleys and dark corridors has been broken up.
In their place, 1,650 new Sms Audio Street By 50 homes will be built over the next ten years and a further 344 will be refurbished. But it remains to be seen if this £247million Beats by Dre facelift and a change of name to Beechwood Village will erase the stigma of Craylands and tempt private buyers.
Makeover: Basildon's Craylands is being replaced by 1,650 new homes. The estate will be re-named Beechwood Village to erase the stigma of its past
Prices for the new homes start at £175,000 for a two-bedroom house, rising to £265,000 for four bedrooms, although a third will be available for rent to housing association tenants or on a shared-ownership through the HomeBuy Direct scheme.
While these prices are on a par with the national average, they are streets ahead of the value of existing Craylands property, where £70,000 will buy a three-bedroom maisonette - a snip for a home half-an-hour by train from the City.
Six years ago police on the Craylands council estate in Basildon, Essex, fought running battles with hundreds of youths in a crackdown on crime.
Today developers, not detectives, are cleaning up Craylands. Dozens of cheap Sixties flats and houses have been flattened and the warren Sms Audio 50 Cent of dead ends, blind alleys and dark corridors has been broken up.
In their place, 1,650 new Sms Audio Street By 50 homes will be built over the next ten years and a further 344 will be refurbished. But it remains to be seen if this £247million Beats by Dre facelift and a change of name to Beechwood Village will erase the stigma of Craylands and tempt private buyers.
Makeover: Basildon's Craylands is being replaced by 1,650 new homes. The estate will be re-named Beechwood Village to erase the stigma of its past
Prices for the new homes start at £175,000 for a two-bedroom house, rising to £265,000 for four bedrooms, although a third will be available for rent to housing association tenants or on a shared-ownership through the HomeBuy Direct scheme.
While these prices are on a par with the national average, they are streets ahead of the value of existing Craylands property, where £70,000 will buy a three-bedroom maisonette - a snip for a home half-an-hour by train from the City.