Councils will be allowed to borrow £500m in order to settle more backdated equal pay claims. Communities secretary, John Denham, used his speech to the Labour Party' annual conference to confirm 37 councils would be allowed to sell or borrow against assets to resolve long-standing claims. Mr Denham made the commitment in the interest of ‘fairness', and it was welcomed as ‘good progress' by both the LGA and union leaders. Council leaders said the Government's decision had been made because councils had proved they could cope with big issues such as pay. Mr Denham said: ‘Work of equal value deserves equal pay for every employee in any job, and that includes local government.' As Mr Denham announced the offer, local government employers revealed that councils had made huge progress in eliminating historic pay discrimination. Research revealed two-thirds of authorities had either completed equal pay reviews or largely finished the work. Almost 80% of pay reviews had been completed with union agreement, and fewer than one in three had employment tribunal cases outstanding. Sir Steve Bullock, chairman of the LGA's HR panel, said: ‘This report shows the vast majority of councils are well down the road towards achieving equal pay for the local government workforce.'