The homes in Allison Street will be transformed and upgraded to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing.

A contractor has been appointed and survey work is currently underway. Ongoing discussions will be held with residents to make sure they are informed about the work during each stage.

As part of the programme it was agreed that houses which did not meet the Housing Quality Standard and which were no longer desirable or required in the community would be demolished, with any council tenants affected being rehoused.

The majority of the homes which would require being demolished are currently vacant.

Chair of the housing and technical resources committee, Councillor Alex McInnes, said: “With rural areas such as Carstairs Junction we often find that we have more housing stock than people who actually want homes in that area.

“When that is the case we have to think carefully about the best way forward to address that issue.

“I believe that this is what we have done with this decision, as we can concentrate fully on upgrading and improving the homes which people are still interested in staying in.

“We engaged fully with local tenants and residents on these proposals and almost everyone was very positive about how it would improve the area.”