THE state of East Lancashire's housing emerged as the biggest concern at a major debate on the future of the area.

The East Lancashire Tomorrow conference saw more than 180 leaders from business, education and training talk about the priorities for the area in the next 20 years.

Raising education standards, more training, improving wage levels and investing in public transport were all seen as key priorities.

But housing was an issue raised again and again. One fifth of East Lancashire houses - more than 50,000 - are unfit and hundreds of millions of pounds is needed.

Marianne Neville Rolfe, the head of the Government Office in the North West admitted that housing problems in East Lancashire were "acute and a disgrace".

But she said part of the problem in the past had been not knowing how to deal with it.

And she said East Lancashire was not an 'also ran' area always in the shadow of Manchester and Liverpool.

"Those two cities have huge needs and the region cannot be successful when Liverpool and Manchester are not flourishing but East Lancashire is still an important part of the North West," she said. Many of the aims of the East Lancashire Tomorrow document centred on bringing the area up to national averages in terms of health, housing and pay.

But Roger Ellis, chief executive of Burnley Borough Council stressed that reaching average levels was a huge task.

"Other parts of the country are improving all the time and if we are going to become average then we need to do an awful lot better than them," he stressed.

The conference also heard calls for East Lancashire to have its own learning and skills council - the bodies being set up to replace training and enterprise councils.

Mark Price, chief executive of East Lancashire's TEC, said a wider group covering the whole of Lancashire would risk not having the responsiveness a local body provided.

He stressed East Lancashire had special problems including its heavy dependence on manufacturing and low skill levels which needed its own solutions.

"We need the strength which a local learning and skills council would bring."

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