NO MORE taxpayers' cash is to be spent on the transfer of council homes until Burnley Council gets a written guarantee that the government will wipe out £20 million debts.

A full council meeting last night voted unanimously to stop spending and to ask Burnley MP Peter Pike to arrange urgent meetings with government ministers to seek final written clarification of the government's proposals for resolving the issue.

It has always been made clear that the valuation issue needed to be solved before the transfer could go ahead.

The guarantee has still not been received even though tenants have voted nine to one in favour of the transfer.

Councillors were told that what had appeared to have been a calculated risk would be perceived as a reckless gamble with other people's money were the transfer not to go ahead.

Tenants' group representatives urged the council not to delay the transfer of all the council houses to a publicly run company.

Council leader Stuart Caddy said he was 99 per cent certain Burnley would not have to pick up the residual debt but the remaining one per cent meant that he was not prepared to risk council taxpayers' money.

"I am not prepared to put taxpayers' at risk to the tune of £1.9 million'' he said.

The Labour leader twice said he was not prepared to trust the government. "I want it in writing for the people of Burnley. We shall tell the government they are denying the rights of the people of Burnley," he said.

He stressed that the council had not stopped working on the process but had paused.

They had cheekily asked the consultants if they would carry on their work "at risk'' and they had agreed.

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