MILLIONS of pounds of government money is to be spent on improving local housing. The cash - from the Housing Investment Programme (HIP) - will be used to upgrade existing houses, provide private sector grants and boost disabled facilities in homes.

Blackburn with Darwen Council is to receive £3,282,000, backed by £1,828,000 of its own capital. Hyndburn Council will be given £1,543,000 and will put an extra £680,000 into the improvement schemes.

The announcement comes as the government released details of the local authorities' performances, alongside those in the rest of the region.

Both Blackburn with Darwen and Hyndburn Councils achieved an "average" performance - judged on the success of housing strategies, programme delivery, housing management and tenant involvement.

Housing Minister Hilary Armstrong said: "We are committed to providing good quality homes for everyone and I am pleased to announce a package of funding that will help local authorities provide new homes with registered social landlords, improve the housing stock and help re-invigorate communities.

"We have made changes in the way that the HIP resources are allocated by moving away from a fully competitive system to a system which places greater emphasis on need."

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