15 families who have been financially trapped on the run-down half-deserted estate of Langworthy and Seedley have been offered a lifeline by Salford city council, who are running a £300,000 pilot scheme aimed at regenerating deprived areas.

Homeowners living on the estate have seen property prices slide by as much as 80 percent in the last decade, driven down by problems of crime, squalor, drugs and empty properties, of which there are as many as 800 vacant homes on the predominantly owner-occupied estate. This has left most of the owners in negative equity and therefore unable to move out. Other residents have had their homes bought by the council under compulsory purchase by the council, often for considerably less than it would take to buy a new home.

But a way out has now been provided by Salford city council, who have been granted £300,000 by the North West Development Agency to pilot a home swap scheme and see owners given alternative properties in regeneration areas elsewhere in the city, allowing parts of the estate to be bulldozed.

The late Christmas present will see owners move to newly refurbished properties, complete with double glazing, central heating and burglar alarm systems. Participating families will be able to transfer their existing mortgage without incurring any additional debt and the council is even going to front up the cost of removals, solicitor's fees and surveys. The families will have to stay in the new homes for at least five years or they will have to pay back some of the money to the council upon the sale of the new house, which is itself likely to rise in value due to its location in a regeneration area.

John Warmisham, a councillor and housing spokesman for Salford city council, said: "This is the turning point for many residents in Seedley and Langworthy, offering them the opportunity to get out of a debt trap. Over the next 12 months people should see the pace of change accelerate in the area."