Less than half of the 127 houses on the Harrowby Road estate in Moxley are occupied.

Problems with subsidence have forced families to move out because the homes are too dangerous to live in.

But it would cost almost as much to make the homes safe as it would to knock down the estate and rebuild it.

Collapsed mineshaft

Housing officers at Walsall Council said the foundations of the houses were not built sufficiently strong and it is expected more homes will become dangerous as the foundations weaken.

In Hughes Road, half a mile away, a house disappeared into a collapsed mineshaft two and a half years ago.

The Harrowby Road houses are not under the same threat but council housing officer Lawrence Brazier says foundations were inadequate for the remade ground conditions following mining.