Cockroaches on the run

At first I thought it was paradise,' the first tenant to move into Hackney's Holly Street housing estate in east London recalled recently. But things soon went badly wrong, and within 20 years of opening, the high-rise blocks were due for demolition.

Now, after a pounds97m regeneration programme, health secretary Frank Dobson claims to be 'one of the biggest fans' of the project. 'This is a place where there has been a dramatic turn around,' he enthused after a visit last week.

'This ought to be a model for other places in the East End and throughout the country. It embodies the idea that health is not just about the health service, but about housing and other services as well.'

The old Holly Street estate was completed in 1971, when people were enthusiastic about high-rise living. But high flat turnover and poor maintenance soon caused problems.

'The long corridors were part of the problem. The kids used to skate all the length of the floor. And ride bikes,' one long-standing tenant told a recent survey of 112 residents.

'The central heating didn't cover the bedrooms, they were so cold and damp. People were always ill. Condensation and mould became really bad, and the insects too...'

Hackney council eventually put together a wide-ranging partnership to demolish the crime and cockroach-infested high-rise blocks. Demolition began in 1993, and the first set of 160 new houses was completed in January 1996.

The survey of residents who moved into these houses supports Mr Dobson's enthusiasm for the project. It found crime had dropped sharply, and that residents felt safer and happier in their new homes.

More than 75 per cent of residents suffered cockroach infestations on the old estate, where the insects bred in the central heating system.

'You were asleep in bed and they would fall on you,' recalls a tenant. 'They were in your fridge, in your cupboards, everywhere.'

Only 3 per cent of Holly Street residents now suffer cockroach infestation - a report on the project suggests some roaches survived the move in bags and furnishings. Problems with mice, rats and ants have also declined.

And dramatic health gains also seem to have been made. Almost 90 per cent of residents reported visiting a doctor in the final year of living in their old home, but just 70 per cent needed to visit a doctor after moving.

The percentage of people visiting a doctor more than six times a year dropped from 38 per cent to 22 per cent and visits to hospital fell from 59 per cent to 45 per cent.

'The old spirit is back,' adds a tenant with angina who used to live on the 17th floor of a block where the lifts 'so often' did not work.

'When I open my door my neighbours say 'hello'. My friends visit me again. It's just great not to have to sweep the water away from the doors, not to be flooded and not to see any cockroaches.'