PENDLE peer Lord Tony Greaves has called on the Government to give more help to councils such as Pendle to deal with what he called "rotten tooth" houses - eyesore properties standing by the side of good homes.

He was speaking in the House of Lords during the committee stage of the new Housing Bill, in a debate on new Government proposals which will allow councils to make "Empty Dwelling Management Orders" on houses that have been left empty for some time.

The council will be able to take over management of the houses and let them to tenants.

He said the proposed new laws went to the heart of problems "in which he had been involved for the past 35 years in trying to tackle poor and sub-standard housing." Drawing on his experience, including as chairman of Pendle Council's Housing Committee in the 1970s and as a ward councillor in Colne, Tony Greaves told their Lordships of "many decent streets of good housing in which one or two houses cause blight and social problems."

Lord Greaves said that many empty properties were not in good condition, and asked how much money councils will be allowed or expected to spend to bring them up to scratch, and where will it come from.

"Even in the best areas, houses that have been left empty for years often deteriorate; repairs are needed, water gets in, leakages are not repaired."

He told their Lordships that Pendle had in the past had a very good record of getting such houses repaired and improved and saving decent streets. But it had got more difficult since the amount the government allocated to Pendle for housing investment each year had gone down from a high point of £6 millions over 20 years ago to less than £2 millions.

Lord Greaves told ministers that their aims were "brilliant". He said: "I want to stand on a little hill, wave a flag and cheer the government - which I do not do very often!"