THE man in charge of regenerating Burnley's housing market has accused the town's MP of trying to score cheap political points' after she said the ruling coalition was spending Elevate cash too slowly.

Coun Martin Smith, executive member for housing, has called on Kitty Ussher to retract her call for a rocket' to be put under the local authority, which was made at last week's Prime Minister's Question Time.

And he defended the council's record on Elevate saying they had exceeded their targets and had been given the largest share of new cash in East Lancashire for next year.

Coun Smith said: "I am very disappointed Kitty Ussher's question to the Prime Minister. It is an insult to the hard work that council officers have put in not only to meet the targets for the Elevate programme, but to overachieve in terms of performance and spending.

"Mrs Ussher's question will only deter investment at a time when we should be applauding the work being carried out. I call upon Mrs Ussher to retract her statement and offer some thanks to the officers who have worked so hard to get Burnley back to where it deserves to be."

At Question Time Mrs Ussher said: "The Lib Dem/Tory administration on Burnley Council is moving too slowly; last year they didn't even spend the money allocated under this scheme."

Responding to Coun Smith's call, she said: "The Liberal Democrats promised to speed up the Elevate programme and they haven't done that. I make no apology for what I said and I will continue to take every opportunity to make the council speed things up."