COUNCIL tenants will be consulted later this summer about moves to find the desperately needed cash to refurbish 800 dilapidated homes.

Hyndburn Council bosses are considering selling the houses to housing associations in a move to raise the much-needed money.

And another plan has been put forward to set up a company jointly owned by the council, tenants and private business.

In the last decade Hyndburn Council has invested heavily in its 4,000 properties but the 800 homes are still in urgent need of repair. And the borough's Labour MP Greg Pope is backing the moves to come up with the extra cash.

He said: "Until recently local councils could borrow money to improve housing but this has now been withdrawn.

"Councils like Hyndburn simply do not have the money needed to carry out repairs and they are being forced to look at more imaginative ways of raising funds.

"The key issue is that in this is not party politics nor ideology but the standard of lives of people who are forced to live in sub-standard housing.

"At the end of the day I would fully support any proposals which would improve the standard of housing for council tenants in Hyndburn."

Both proposals will be discussed at the first meeting of Hyndburn's federation of tenants associations later this summer.

Housing officers believe that the 800 homes which are spread in all the towns in Hyndburn need modernising urgently.

The improvements needed include damp-proofing, replacing rotten windows and doors, insulating properties and installing central heating.

Edgar Bignell, council head of community services said: "Recent changes in the law have meant we have been forced to look out new ways of raising funds for housing repairs.

"All we are trying to do is secure investment and at the moment we are looking at a variety of possibilities."

The council would have to prove tenants support any proposals they put forward and proper consultations have been carried out.

The various proposals will also be debated at a housing services committee on Thursday.

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