LANCASTER City Council could find itself £1.8 million richer if Government plans to release money from council house sales gets the go-ahead. Capital receipts frozen by the former government could soon be released to pay for better housing across the district. Labour has also scrapped Tory plans to force a housing sell off and the policy shift has been warmly welcomed by the council.

Said chairman of the housing committee, Cllr Ian Barker: "This is marvellous news for the Council and our tenants. We are looking at getting around £1.8 million from frozen capital receipts, which is a useful sum, but there's still a long way to go.

"We were fundamentally opposed to transferring council housing to another landlord without tenants having the chance to be involved in the decision. The previous Government only offered a Hobson's choice."

The Council is now now investigating whether a local housing company could bring in new sources of finance to improve council housing but Cllr Barker has promised that tenants would be fully consulted on any major plans to change the ownership or running of council housing.

He added: "We don't face any short term financial problems but we do need to plan for the longer term. We must make sure we have resources to keep our council homes in good repair, to continue to improve them and to build new homes to meet the needs of our sons and daughters. We may have to form partnerships with private finance to do this."

"Now we have the chance to develop such proposals free from any threat of compulsion, we can be sure they will offer the council and tenants a better deal."

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