A SENIOR councillor wants to take money from a housing developer and use it to build new homes on a neglected part of the Craylands estate in Basildon.

Phil Turner, Basildon Council’s deputy leader, wants to get cash from its development partner Swan Housing, rather than have it ringfenced for affordable housing in a planning document, known as a Section 106 agreement.

Mr Turner said the money would then be spent tearing down run-down homes, such as the maisonettes in Lincoln Road, and building new ones well before they are scheduled to be replaced.

The Lincoln Road area is currently in phase four of the £220million rebuild of the estate and Mr Turner hopes by doing it his way, the whole area would be brought up to scratch much sooner.

Mr Turner said: “If we don’t take social housing from the developers and instead take the cash, I would really like to do up the estate by reinvesting that money into it.

“I hope residents will get behind this plan because it could add some serious value to some of the areas of Craylands, which is only good for homeowners.

“I think we will do a good job on this if we can start scoping it out now. Otherwise, we’ll be left with half the estate regenerated and half of it looking out of place. We will try to use local materials and labour as well with this, so it’s another project that could help revitalise the econom