PENDLE Council has been given the government go-ahead to spend £810,000 on paying for council grants to renovate run-down private houses in the borough.

Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong has decided to bend the rules for using cash from the sale of local authority homes to allow the hard-pressed council to kick-start its scheme for upgrading the thousands of dilapidated properties in the area.

The move will pay for the council's 40 per cent contribution to improvement grants for privately-owned properties in need of repair and maintenance.

Normally the money from council house sales - released for use by local authorities by the Labour Government - must be used for "new initiatives."

Criticises

But after a visit to Pendle by Mrs Armstrong and a deputation from Pendle Borough, she has accepted that the circumstances there are "exceptional".

While she criticises the council for failing to plan ahead properly for a reduction in their capital allocations in 1998/99, she said the "unique cocktail of problems and challenges facing the borough" justified the move.

In letter to local MP Gordon Prentice she said:"I have seen for myself that renewal of private sector property is plainly of primary importance for Pendle.

"We are prepared to accept that for Pendle in 1998/99, the best use of the Capital Receipts Allocation is to devote it to meeting the council's 40 per cent contribution towards the cost of making grants for the renewal of private sector housing." Pendle Labour backbencher Mr Prentice said:"This is splendid news. We have some of the oldest and most run-down housing in the entire country and we need help to put things to rights.

"The borough quite rightly wanted to use the cash to support their existing housing programme. That was my view and now it's going to happen."

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