TV celebrity Dan Hill is targeting Jaywick in a personal mission.

He has launched a nationwide scheme to buy and renovate properties to rent for the homeless, with Britain’s most deprived village the first to benefit.

Overall, five or six homes will be made available locally, around half the total nationally.

The star of TV’s Storage Hunters and SuperScrimpers may be enjoying the good life today, yet just over ten years ago he was on benefits himself, sleeping rough and staying in hostels full of drunks and drug addicts.

Seeing a heroin addict led ‘Dapper Dan’ to turn his life around by trading his away to fame and fortune, including launching a business dealing in surplus building materials.

“I have set up a project. We are taking on difficult areas like Jaywick. I am renovating properties in deprived area and allowing the homeless people to move in,” he said.

The 33-year-old has wanted to do this for years but only now has he the time and money to spare. Thus, he created the Rebuild4U not-for-profit social enterprise company. Dan said his wife Louise Hill is from the East End and suggested Jaywick as her parents used to take her on holiday to Clacton.

Surrey-born Dan said this was long before the Benefits Street tv programmes started and the village being designated the most deprived in Britain. However, since buying the first of five or six properties in Jaywick earlier this year and starting work on his first property in Brookland, Dan has found “an amazing sense of community.”

“No-one has any money here but they will give you their last roll-up, their last cigarette. Jaywick has such a bad reputation. Even in Clacton they see it as a no-go area but this reputation is unfounded,” he said. “There are issues. People are down on their luck but you should not turn your back on people. I feel at home here, I have a beautiful view of the seaside,” he said.

Dan has begun seeking a deserving person to be his first tenant, who he expects will also give back as best they can by helping with the renovation.

“It’s not a charity where it’s all done for them. People need a helping hand but they have to want something for themselves and do what they can do,” he said.

Interested parties should contact Dan through Facebook and Twitter giving their life-story.

Selection will take place over the next few months, with the first tenant moving in by the year end. Rentals from the properties will then fund others. He said: I haven’t done this for a tv show. It’s been on my mind for years and only now am I able to do it. I have received no government funding. It’s completely funded by myself. My whole reputation is on the line with this one. We have to pull it out of the bag,” Dan added.

Tendring District Council said it will work with Dan on his project which adds to others the council is developing at Jaywick.

“Dan’s idea will certainly add to the positivity that residents are starting to feel that real change is beginning to take shape in Jaywick Sands and they can be a part of that,” said Paul Honeywood, Cabinet Member for Housing.