INNOVATIVE and ambitious. That is how councillors of all political persuasions welcomed plans to rejuvenate the council's housing stock through massive private sector funding.

But all sides also agree that the need for such a radical change has been brought about through chronic Government underfunding for housing over successive administrations.

And the mood among councillors is that housing is no longer a priority area with the Government.

After three years on the drawing board the council's plans to create a Community Regeneration Company (CRC) to supervise and improve housing stock over the next 35 years will have to seek approval from Whitehall if it is to progress.

Leaseholds

Housing chiefs say they have already entered into negotiations with banks and financial institutions and say their model of the lease-lend system would work.

Under the scheme the CRC would borrow the money against the worth of the leaseholds on the 22,000 council properties.

The money would be paid back from the revenue generated from rents on council properties.

The council has already determined that the CRC model would be its preferred choice for the future but have examined alternatives including large-scale privatisation.

Cllr Noel Spencer, executive member for housing, said: "The amount of money going into public housing has risen over the past 20 years but taken as a whole, in line with such things as inflation, it has reduced in real terms.

"It means that under the existing funding arrangements we would not be able to carry out the repairs and improvements that people would expect to bring our housing stock up to 21st century standards.

"We have argued with the Government to treat housing with the same parity as health or education but this has not happened. We have to make changes if we are to see improvements and we believe this is the way forward."

If the project is successful immediate repair and improvement work will be prioritised to areas of the town that need it most over the next seven years.

But areas where council housing is already of a decent standard could also benefit from the funding in terms of community improvements such as landscaping and street repairs.

Ultimately council tenants will have the final say on whether the project goes ahead through a vote.

And while individual tenants have not yet been consulted, the project has already found favour with the many residents' associations in the town.

Richard Smallman, chairman of the Bolton Affiliation of Tenants and Residents' Associations (BATRA) which covers 46 groups across Bolton, said: "The council has involved us from the start. We have looked at a number of options but, so far, we believe that this is the best one.

"It will give the town the sort of money needed to make real improvements and support regeneration. It also keeps the stock in community ownership."

He added: "No-one can say how any future vote will go but we want the freedom to include this as a choice for our members and all tenants."

investment

Bolton has forwarded the scheme to the Government because it believes that the other investment options available would not raise the huge amounts of money needed to tackle the borough's problems or don't offer as many benefits to tenants.

But before tenants can have their say, the council must first convince the Government that their model is acceptable. Cllr John Walsh, Bolton Council's deputy Tory leader, urged Whitehall not to drag its feet.

"We welcome this proposal and it is probably the biggest single project ever undertaken in Bolton,"Cllr Walsh said. "The Conservative Government would have backed such a plan and it is only unfortunate that it wasn't done years ago.

"It is now up to civil servants to realise that this scheme is a good one and will benefit Bolton as well as saving the Government money.

"There are still many council houses in Bolton that are quite simply unsuitable, some still have outside toilets or inadequate kitchen facilities and action needs to be taken fast."

While Westhoughton Lib Dem Cllr David Wilkinson, added: "We support this and believe the Government should.

Alternatives

"It would be the ultimate irony if a solution to problems prompted by the Government's lack of investment in housing did not go ahead because they refuse to get behind it."

But he warned: "Make no mistake this and the other options available to the council involve some degree of privatisation but the alternatives involve a greater degree of privatisation and apart from very short-term benefits that would be disastrous.

"There are many houses in Bolton that are in no fit state to be lived. On top of the council's problems there about 6,000 houses in the private sector which are uninhabitable. The Government has no slum clearance policy and action needs to be taken. We can only hope they support this project."