WARRINGTON and West Lancs councils are being given £2.5m to build council homes for the first time in 20 years.
The authorities are among 47 across England whose bids for funding have been accepted.
The move amounts to a major government U-turn, after Labour followed the Conservatives in refusing to allow local authorities to build their own homes.
And it paves the way for new rules that will allow town halls to keep the rents and receipts from their housing stock – in order to fund major building programmes.
The first wave of new council homes will be small scale – just 30 in Warrington (£1.95m) and only 17 in Skelmersdale (£807,500).
