Homeowners being forced to sell their properties are celebrating after agreeing to accept an increased offer to move out to make way for a new housing development.

Many of the owners of Orlit properties in Carshalton have decided to now accept an extra £35,000 from the council for their homes, that came after being told last year there was no more money to offer them.

Twenty home owners, the vast majority of whom are retired, bought the houses off the council during the right to buy scheme in the 1980s, but less than ten years later the council wanted them back so it could redevelop Green Wrythe Crescent, Fellowes Road, Nightingale Close and Duke of Edinburgh Road as part of a new housing development.

Although the initial plans were abandoned in the 1990s, the council announced it had designs for the same parts or land in late 2011 for a 87 home development, and this time, it was not going to give up and threatened a compulsory purchase order.

Pensioners, some of whom are in their 80's, received a letter through their door telling them their houses were going to be bulldozed and they had no choice but to accept the councils offer of between £140,000 to £150,000 for the homes they had worked their whole lives to pay for, and which now they finally owned - despite seeing a house on their street being sold at auction in 2010 for £175,000.

But now, almost a year to the day since the Sutton Guardian, along with Conservative Councillor Tony Shields and former Labour Councillor Andrew Theobold, decided to fight the corner of the hard working home owners, the council has bowed to pressure and found an extra £35k for each of the home owners.

After some thought the might initially reject the offer, they have decided to accept them.

Adrian Martell, a former timber yard manager, 65, and Marian Martell, 66, a former nurse at St Helier Hospital, said: "It's great news. We can finally move on with our lives now. We still might buy the static caravan on the coast, we've not decided yet, but at least we have options now, before we had none."

Tony Ford, 79, a former engineer, and Heather Brocklehurst, 83, a retired nursery nurse, said: "It has been a horrible couple of years for us not knowing what is going to happen to us. Eight weeks ago we had our first grandchild so we are not going anywhere, we want to stay in the borough, and this extra money will allow us to do that."

Mr Shields and Mr Theobold criticised Lib Dem councillors for their handling of the case.

Councillor Jayne McCoy, Sutton Council's housing spokesman, said: "We have listened to freeholders' concerns and worked very hard to find a satisfactory solution."