Thousands of north-east council homes are set for a lick of paint after the local authority put out the massive job to tender.
Painters and decorators from across the region will be drafted in to spruce up the exteriors of 2,938 local authority properties.
The huge refurbishment is part of a rolling programme of maintenance and upgrades carried about by the housing department every four years.
Homes in Aberdeenshire settlements including Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Inverurie, Ellon and Mintlaw will undergo “paint and finishing” work.
Last night a spokesman for Aberdeenshire Council said: “There are around 12,000 council houses in Aberdeenshire and every four years we do external work to a quarter of the houses.
“We have broken down the contract in to 22 separate tenders in order to attract smaller local companies to bid for them.”
He said that when the colossal job had been advertised previously, smaller firms struggled to bid for the whole contract.
The total value of each of the 22 tenders has not been revealed ahead of the bidding process.
The latest raft of refurbishment works will cover 415 homes in Fraserburgh and the surrounding area, as well as 265 in the coastal communities of Banff, Macduff and Gardenstown.
In Peterhead, 306 properties are due for repainting and in the south of Aberdeenshire, 168 homes in Inverbervie, Johnshaven and Laurencekirk are included in the contracts.
The deadline for firms to bid for the 22 paint and finishing contracts in August 26. A final decision by housing chiefs at Woodhill House is expected to be made next month.
Aberdeenshire Council currently has housing waiting list of nearly 10,000 people with 12,000 homes currently occupied.
In an effort to slash the figures, Aberdeenshire Council has a policy that 25% of all new housing built in the region is “affordable” for families on modest income.
