IN many parts of Britain £20,000 will barely be enough to buy you a lock-up garage.

In some parts of London you would be lucky to be able to rent a flat for 12 months for the same sum.

But in East Lancashire last year an astonishing 2,463 houses sold for less than £20,000 - compared with only 1,656 in the whole of Manchester and Salford.

It's not a record to be proud of because such low priced hard-to-sell houses are really nothing more than slum dwellings which are a blot on any landscape.

The figures came from Pendle MP Gordon Prentice who along with Hyndburn's Greg Pope is stepping up pressure on Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott for us to get a generous share of the £500 million to be given over the next three years in grants to us and seven other Pathfinder areas.

The money will be spent on improving housing stock and therefore rejuvenating local economies and increasing house prices.

We have more of these rock bottom slum properties than any other Pathfinder area and the result of East Lancashire's bid should be known by the end of the year.

East Lancashire has waited too long for real help in tackling a problem which has knock-on effects in so many areas of our lives.

Poor housing, health and low educational achievement are all linked. 2004 must be the year bad housing is banished.