EVERY single building on a half-built “ghost” estate of flat pack homes will be torn down “to floor slab level” before construction work starts on rebuilding the properties, it has been confirmed.

Guinness Homes says all six of the blocks of the homes currently on the Meadow Grange site, off Fossetts Way, will be razed to the ground.

Work will start “soon” and then a new contractor will be found to build 131 “luxury and affordable” modular homes on the site, the firm confirmed in an update.

The project has been left half-built and abandoned since modular home manufacturer Ilke went into administration last year.

Since, the site has been branded an “eyesore ghost-town”.

Previously, Guinness confirmed a number of buildings would need to be demolished but it has now confirmed that every single building on the site must be bulldozed.

Southend Council’s deputy leader, Labour councillor Anne Jones, who is responsible for planning and housing, hopes Guinness will be able to quickly find a new contractor to allow the promised estate to materialise.

She said: “One hopes the homes would come forward and it is up to Guinness to see who they partner with and if that someone has the ability to actually deliver.

“They as an organisation can change their plans but it is unfortunate for them and there has been a lot of resistance to house building in that area.

“However, there is no noise about them building these homes at Meadow Grange, there was no issue from the council and if these houses were to give people problems, and new builds can be a nightmare, it is because they are not of good construction and that is a building control matter.”

Ms Jones claimed if Guinness had worked with the council, rather than Ilke, then they could have helped to avoid the situation and long delay in delivering the much-needed new homes for residents.

The Guinness Partnership also said that a National House-Building council survey found five of the almost completed homes failed to meet necessary regulatory requirements including fire safety.

Ms Jones added: “I won’t be kind to them for that reason, building control said there were issues, they cannot now just say they want them to come to the ground.”

A spokesman from the Guinness Partnership said: “Demolition will start soon and is expected to take four to five weeks to complete. The process will take all the partially completed homes back to floor slab level, from which the new contractor will be able to take forward construction.”