MORE than half of Sedgemoor's council houses are too cold, out-of-date, in need of repair and below minimum standards - with some still "without central heating" during this year's freezing conditions.

This is the startling reality found in Sedgemoor District Council's latest key performance indicators for October to December 2006.

The document reveals a total of 53.4% of the houses are currently classified as "non-decent" for failing to meet Government quality standards - a tally more than twice the national average of 26%.

Hilda Fisher, chairman of the residents' association and vice-chairman of the district's tenants' forum, told of feedback given to her.

"People do moan. A lot of tenants, especially the younger generation, want things done and they want it done yesterday," she said.

"I think they expect to move into a home and it's going to already have double glazing and things like that. A lot of tenants have lived in their houses for 40 or 50 years and not had anything done.

"There are still homes without central heating. These are homes that have got people living in them.

"I have been a tenant for 12 years. When I moved in there was in there was no central heating, but it was something I knew would come eventually. From my personal experience the standard of my home has been pretty good."

But the figures show exactly how far the authority is currently away from meeting Government targets to bring all social housing up to the Decent Homes Standard by 2010.

Sedgemoor District Council spokesman Claire Faun said it had around 4,000 properties on the books and defended their condition.

"These homes are inhabited. It doesn't mean that they are awful, it means that they don't meet the standard the Government has set," she said.

"With some of the elderly residents they are happy with what they have got and they don't want the improvements.

"It's an unfortunate term because it makes them sound like hovels and they are not. The council just doesn't have the money at the moment to meet the Government criteria."

A non-decent house is one which fails to meet all four criteria of the Decent Homes Standard, which are: a statutory minimum standard; a reasonable state of repair; reasonably modern facilities and services; a reasonable degree of thermal comfort.

But Sedgemoor insisted more money was on the way to help it bring the homes up to the Government's standards.

"When a house becaomes vacant we do then bring them up to standard," said Ms Faun.

"The Arms Length Management Organisation, which is going live in April, will be able to draw down money from the Government to make these improvements.

"The ALMO that is coming in will combat this problem. As a local authority we can't access the money from the Government needed to carry out this work. The money will not be coming from the taxpayer."