AFTER a cliffhanger wait, the Government has agreed to bend the rules and allow Pendle Council to spend more than £800,000 on renovations for decaying homes.

Pendle Council, backed by the area's MP Gordon Prentice, campaigned long and hard to persuade Labour to allow it to spend the money on grants for home improvements.

A delegation travelled to London to persuade local government Minister Hilary Armstrong of the pressing need for cash to carry out urgent repairs to the borough's ageing houses and Mrs Armstrong paid a return journey to see the problems for herself. Yesterday the persistence paid off when it was announced Pendle was an exceptional case and the Government would bend the rules to allow the authority to use £810,000 raised through council house sales to pay for much-needed renovations.

Housing boss John Kirk said without the cash Pendle would have faced serious difficulties over improvement grants for private properties in need of repair and maintenance.

Mr Kirk said: "We're very pleased that the outcome of all this was favourable. We're just a bit disappointed that the decision wasn't made six months ago but the wheels of the Civil Service grind very slowly indeed.

"We would like to say 'thank you very much' to Hilary Armstrong because without her input this would not have happened. If we hadn't of got this permission we would have been in very serious trouble. Now we can meet our commitments."

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