HOUSING bosses at Burnley Council have had to scale back regeneration plans following a £2million budget cut.

It means the council will have to spend less on buying up properties and clearing out derelict areas.

The cut comes after the Government announced that Housing Market Renewal (HMR) schemes had to be slashed by £50million across the country.

Paul Gatrell, head of housing at Burnley Council, said: “This represents a very significant cut in the resources available to Burnley to fund its HMR programme.

“The council has had to make a series of difficult decisions to prioritise a reduced allocation which has inevitably meant less resources being available for key programmes.

“Specific areas that have been directly affected are clearance and acquisitions, facelifting and the vacant property initiative, all of which will see a reduced budget this year with a corresponding reduction in outputs.”

Regenerate Pennine Lancashire has slashed the renewal budget by 17.5 per cent, which has resulted in Burnley’s share of cash falling to £10million.

The clearance programme has seen the biggest loss, with funding being slashed from £7.8million to £6.7million.

The latest phases of the programme are in the Burnley Wood and Cog Lane areas.

Money to buy up old properties or properties in areas earmarked for demolition has also fallen by £250,000 since the original budget was approved in April.

The Housing Market Renewal programme has been run in Burnley since 2003 and has seen millions of pounds ploughed into regenerating housing across Burnley and Padiham.

Across East Lancashire more than 2,500 properties had been bought, with 2,300 demolished, nearly 6,000 homes given facelifts, add 1,700 new homes built.