SIX East Lancashire councils will share almost £700,000 to boost their efforts to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping next year.

The government has allocated £13.8million to local authorities in the North-West for 2020/21 to help their efforts to provide roofs over the heads of those living on the streets.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared ending rough sleeping to be a priority of the government.

The money comes in two grants: the Flexible Homelessness Support Grant (FSGH) which supports to those at risk of homelessness; and the Homelessness Reduction Grant (HRG) to help homeless households into accommodation.

The cash has been welcomed by a politicians across East Lancashire.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has been allocated £77,894 in FSGH and HRA £112,902 giving at total of £190,796.

Burnley will receive £60,597 and £70,423 adding up to £131,020.

Hyndburn Borough gets £40,000 in FSGH and £58,403 in HRA giving a total of £98,403; Pendle gets £68,965 and £59,110 adding up to £128,075; Ribble Valley receives £40,000 and £13,393 adding up to £53,393; and Rossendale will get £60,113 in FSGH and £35,907 in HRA giving a total grant of £96,020.

Cllr Phil Riley, deputy leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "This money will be helpful to assist the council as it steps up its efforts to tackle h0mlessness and rough sleeping.

"However the problem has developed over years of austerity under different governments and will take a lot of money and effort and long time to tackle."

Cllr Charlie Briggs, leader of Burnley Council, said: "This money is welcome and helpful. We should not need to be tackling homelessness and rough sleeping in this day and age but it will help our work and that of people such as Pastor Mick Fleming.

"It would be good to eradicate this problem on our streets but there is a long way to go."

Cllr Miles Parkinson , leader of Hyndburn Council, said: "This money is very welcome. In Hyndburn we do not have the numbers of homeless of the bigger metropolitan areas but we do have a small number of difficult cases of rough sleepers who often refuse help when we offer them temporary accommodation or a house to live in."

The government has also confirmed the Cold Weather Fund will receive an additional £3 million, taking the total to £13 million nationwide to enhance support available for rough sleepers during the winter.