FIVE blocks of flats on a drug-plagued estate are to be converted into family homes.

Cllr David Wilkinson, Bolton Council's executive member for environment and housing, ordered the change after £46,000 was lost in rent while unwanted homes lay empty in Paulhan Street, Great Lever.

A further £28,000 has been spent keeping out vandals and squatters.

Cllr Wilkinson said he hoped that the move would increase the family presence in the area, which would have a positive effect on crime.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "We need to change some of the housing stock because much of it is in the wrong place and of the wrong type."

Housing officers at Bolton at Home, the independent group which manages the borough's council homes, claim that while the area has an "extreme abundance" of flats, there is a demand for more larger family accommodation, especially among black and ethnic minority families.

The move follows the success of a scheme in 2001 when two other blocks of flats on the street were converted into two and three-bedroom homes.

There was an immediate rush of applications for the properties and they have been occupied ever since.

The planned Paulhan Street conversion would lead to about 20 flats lost.

Two other blocks on the road will not be converted.

The board rejected five other options, including refurbishing the flats and demolishing all seven blocks. It is not known how much the conversion will cost.

Cllr Noel Spencer, chairman of Bolton at Home, said: "There has been a lot of drug and criminal activity in this area in the past and this has made it difficult for us to let these flats."