ALMOST 1,000 council flats in Southampton will get new windows as part of a major £9m project.

City council chiefs have rubberstamped spending just over £9m over the next five years to improve hundreds of council properties across the city.

That includes spending £978,000 on replacing windows at Meredith, Dumbleton, Hightown , Albion and Shirley Towers and Sturminster House.

The work will take place over the course of 2016/17 and will be done at the same time as the blocks are insulated as part of the council's Government-led Energy Company Obligation project, which will see major energy companies fund improvement works in the city.

Nine medium rise blocks in Thornhill will also be insulated and have new double glazed windows installed, while windows on the medium rise blocks in the Holyrood estate will also be replaced and will be done at the same time as proposed redecoration.

The roofs of Dumbleton, Meredith, Hightown, Shirley and Albion Towers and Sturminster House will also have their roofs insulated and have new covering added.

And the towers, as well as 91 medium-rise blocks and 50 low-rise blocks will also have inspections and structural improvements carried out over the next five years.

A total of £506,000 will be spent on improvements to wall structures, £210,000 to renew porches and £140,000 to update canopies.

The work on wall structures and finishes will see improvements carried out to stop water seeping into walls and to prevent damp and mould.

As well as internal and external brickwork and rendering receiving treatment, some properties will need new curtain walling added.

Council chiefs estimate that about 100 properties will benefit from the new wall improvements.

About 135 homes in Millbrook, Swaythling and Merry Oak will have their porches replaced or removed over the next two years, while 175 homes in Thornhill, Sholing, Weston, Swaythling and Harefield will have their canopies improved or overhauled.

Most of the funding for the works will come from the council's housing and revenue account largely made up of council tenant rents, but some will be carried out as part of Government-backed Energy Company Obligation (ECO) deal funding provided by a major energy firm.

Council housing boss Warwick Payne, pictured below, said: "The window improvements that we are planning across the city are designed to give residents warmer and safer homes and underline the Labour council's commitment to council housing and providing the best service we can for our valued tenants."

Daily Echo: Warwick Payne.

Referring to the structural works, he added: "With the exception of about 50 properties that we build about five years ago all of the council's stock pre-dates the mid-1908s so that means an awful lot of these properties need improvements."