EAST Lancashire has one of the North West's highest proportions of homes people do not want to live in, according to a report.

The Council for the Protection of Rural England says more than 10 per cent of privately-owned housing stock in Blackburn, Burnley and Hyndburn are in low demand.

Now the charity is calling for controls on the number of new homes built to encourage regeneration of these areas. Jonathan Sear, CPRE's North West policy officer, said the charity agreed with a report issued by the Government's social exclusion unit, which suggested that local authority plans were promoting the development of more housing than was necessary.

"The rush to build new homes is not the only cause of low demand for certain housing, but this report shows that it is a significant contributing factor.

"We can't continue building as many homes as we have previously. The population of the region has stopped increasing.

"Some small new homes are required to allow people to live in smaller households, but anything above this will make the problems of the least popular areas of housing worse. Much of the region's unpopular housing is structurally sound.

"Bulldozing streets would be a tremendous waste of resources and would destroy local communities.

"Demolition should be kept to a minimum. Thoughtful controls on the number of new homes built are needed now to encourage people to invest in renovation, rather than allowing existing urban areas to decay beyond the point of no return."

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