TALKS will take place in a few months on the £170million bid for government cash to bring some of East Lancashire's 19th century housing into the 21st century.

It has been estimated that £1billion is needed over ten years to revitalise our homes and estates which are some of Britain's most deprived.

The government has earmarked £500m over three years for nine 'Pathfinder' areas - £200m of which has already been given to Manchester. East Lancashire is competing with seven other areas for the remaining £300m.

Our bid includes £43million for Blackburn with Darwen, £39m for Burnley, £27m for Pendle, £23.5m for Hyndburn, and £5m for Rossendale.

Leaders of Elevate East Lancashire, the body which submitted the bid, will be talking to government about how much we should get and say they are confident of attracting investment from a range of sources.

There can be no dispute over the urgency of the situation. Plenty of statistical evidence shows how our bad housing leads to bad health among young and old and all kinds of other social problems.

Too often in the past we seem to have suffered when competing for such cash because we lacked the political clout of big cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield.

This time decisions must be taken on the basis of need rather than name to ensure East Lancashire gets a fair deal.