PRIVATE landlords in Kirklees are being offered more than £1.5m to improve their properties.

More than £18m of Government cash is to be spent in Kirklees, Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield over the next two years in an effort to improve rundown neighbourhoods.

Across the region the money will be used to build 450 homes, replace 170 homes and refurbish 500.

In Kirklees, Ravensthorpe and Thornhill will be targeted with the cash, which stands at just over £1.5m.

The money will be used to come up with a regeneration masterplan for the area.

Cash will also be offered to landlords in the form of loans.

They are then bound to bring their properties up to a good standard, equivalent to the Decent Homes Standard, which applies in council housing.

Lindsay Greenwood, director of West Yorkshire Housing Partnership, said: "This is really welcome news for West Yorkshire.

"It is a clear demonstration that the Government recognises just how critical housing market renewal is in parts of the region."

She said her group, which co-ordinates housing investment in the region, had teeth to take on private landlords.

Ms Greenwood added: "We will be able to force them to improve properties.

"Councils can take action against landlords and we will be looking at setting up a Landlords' Charter for the area."

She said similar schemes had been successful in Sheffield and Hull.

Ms Greenwood went on: "Although £1.5m doesn't seem like a lot out of £18m this is not the end of the story. We hope this will be just the first of these sorts of awards and projects."