BURNLEY residents are set to benefit from a better quality of affordable housing.

Council bosses said many houses in the town classed as affordable were run-down two-bed terrace homes.

And they wanted to change that by ensuring 10 per cent of all new housing in Burnley was "affordable".

Strategy manager Paul Gatrell said: "We do not class rows and rows of empty terraces with a low value as affordable - we class them as unacceptable.

"This is about so much more than low-cost housing - it is about working towards real housing choice and making that choice available to a range of household or individual incomes.

"It is about creating neighbourhoods to last for generations - strong communities not exclusively for those who can but also for those who would like to'."

The Affordable Housing Statement is set to play an important part in negotiations with the two selected developers chosen to build new homes and tackle some of the county's most severe housing problems in Daneshouse, Duke Bar and Stoneyholme, Burnley Wood and South West Burnley.

The statement defines affordability as what an individual or household can afford to buy and sets out the level of subsidy that would be required to enable the council to deliver different models of affordable housing.

Coun Martin Smith, executive member for regeneration, added: "Burnley's current low average house price is not positive in relation to affordability - it is a negative.

"It is a sign of limited housing choice, a sign of a struggling economy and, above all, a sign that many homes within these neighbourhoods simply do not work.

"The council is committed to providing high-quality homes of different sizes and types at an affordable price - new housing does not mean no choice' for people on low incomes.

"We are committed to developing neighbourhoods that are sustainable and will last for generations.

"Building new homes will help do this through providing housing choice to the highest quality of environmental standards with regards to insulation and maintenance, a proportion of which will remain at an affordable price suited to a range of incomes."