Leaseholders on West Hendon estate may face bills for hundreds of pounds after Barnet Council agreed to replace their windows.

Rotting windows in many flats are exposing residents to the elements and the panes are in danger of falling out.

The council has offered to pay part of the cost of replacing them, despite being legally entitled, as the freeholder, to charge the full cost to residents of the 92 homes affected.

However, the move has opened the council to allegations of hypocrisy after it allowed the estate deteriorate for six years while residents waited for it to be rebuilt, in a regeneration project that has been beset by delays.

Labour councillor Julie Johnson said: "These windows should have been sorted out years ago and, because the Tories have dragged their heels, leaseholders are going to be landed with much larger bills.

"The discount that is being offered is too little too late. If leaseholders don't want to have their windows done they should not be forced to and, if they are forced to, the council has a moral obligation to pay for it."

Councillor Lynne Hillan, whose cabinet portfolio includes housing, insisted the offer of a discount was generous and had been well received by leaseholders.

She said: "Normally residents would have to pay - that's the deal. The windows have to be replaced because they're getting to the state where they're dangerous. But we don't think it's fair that they should pay the full cost."

She said the council had a moral obligation to subsidise the cost, because the flats are set to be demolished, so leaseholders would not profit from any investment.

But the council could not bear the full cost, she said, because it would set a dangerous precedent between housing authorities and leaseholders.

"That would open the floodgates, because the same thing would happen on estates all over the country," she added.

Residents' association member Elizabeth Fitzgerald said there had been some discord between leaseholders who have to pay and tenants who do not.

"It suits the council to have us arguing among ourselves," she said. "They're using delaying tactics because they said the windows would be done and the latest we've heard is that they're consulting' residents about it.

"Really, we should get the new homes we were promised."