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If you have one pound, you can buy a house in Britain’s cheapest street. Derelict buildings on several streets in Stoke, Staffordshire are being sold for a nominal fee in a bid to clean up the town’s crime rates and reinvigorate the area. In addition to a boarded-up building, the owner will receive a 30,000 pounds low interest loan to renovate the property as part of the 3-million pound scheme funded by Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the government, according to site thisismoney.co.uk. But there is one condition, the owner must renovate the house and live there five years before it can be sold. The properties for sale, which have two to three bedrooms and a backyard, are in a variety of conditions from liveable to desperately needing refurbishment. Council bosses believe the abandoned buildings are bringing down living standards and raising crime rates by attracting arson attacks, squatters, burglary as well as devaluing and damaging nearby properties. Abandoned houses are a huge problem in the area with some 4,000 buildings left empty in Stoke as of January 2011, according to council tax data. The council’s empty house team aims to “bring long term empty homes back into use to improve the standard of housing in the city and to bring life back into our communities” according to the council website. In Staffordshire, Councillor Janine Bridges, cabinet member for housing, neighbourhoods and community safety, said: “We are looking at ways to bring empty properties back into use to improve the living standards of homes within Stoke-on-Trent .” “The idea would mean the council sells empty properties acquired with Housing Market Renewal Grant for a nominal fee and provide new home owners with a loan of up to 30,000 pounds to implement a series of improvement works that the council deems necessary to bring the property back to a decent home standard,” Bridges added. The scheme is focusing on Stoke properties in the Portland Street area, Cobridge and the Bond Street area, Tunstall. The council’s plan is due to be approved later this year and set to launch in 2013.

For just £1 own a house in Britain’s cheapest street