A company working to make a housing estate more environmentally-friendly has apologised after homes were left incomplete over the Christmas period.

Several residents of the Parkside estate in West Bowling were left with unattached gutters, missing sills, damaged roofs, scaffolding frames fixed to their walls and gardens strewn with building materials after work to fix cladding ended last month.

The work, by The Green Deal Warehouse, led to complaints from people living in the unfinished houses, who said there had been little information about when the work would re-start.

Some even claimed builders had acted in a “threatening” manner, a claim the company is now investigating.

The complaints had gone as far as constituency MP David Ward (Lib Dem, Bradford East), who described the work on the houses as “shoddy” and the treatment of residents as “unacceptable”.

The project was part of the Government’s ECO scheme, which sees energy companies provide funding for homes to have cladding installed to cut energy bills and carbon emissions.

But when funding was stalled following a Government decision to push back the deadline for works by two years, the company said it was left with no choice but to complete the cladding as soon as possible. It said this left houses incomplete, but it has assured residents that work to finish the homes was continuing this week.

A statement by the Leeds-based company said: “The Green Deal Warehouse unfortunately had to stop work part-way through the projects being carried out due to funding issues beyond the company’s control.

“Funding for the project was withheld and the company was unable to continue to work on the project until that position was resolved. No funding whatsoever was paid to the Green Deal Warehouse from the outset of the project until the company unfortunately had to call its engineers and installers off site. We are pleased to report that the Green Deal funding is now back on track. Work has recommenced and the company apologises for any inconvenience caused.”

The firm that Mr Ward had seen the homes before they were complete, and that it “unfair” to criticise the unfinished job. The statement continued: “The Green Deal Warehouse is investigating the complaints of abusive or threatening behaviour by our workmen and will take appropriate action where applicable.”

Yassar Taj, chairman of the Parkside Resident’s Association, welcomed the re-start of the work. “This is brilliant news,” he said. “ We’ve had really positive comments from the houses that have been done.”