Council leaders have welcomed the news that NHS England is reconsidering its decision not to fund a new HIV prevention treatment.
NHS England had previously said it would not be funding Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a new way of using anti-retroviral drugs to stop those at very highest risk from contracting the virus.
The Local Government Association said it had long argued expecting councils to fund HIV therapeutics was a 'new and unfunded burden'.
The LGA's community wellbeing spokeswoman, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, said: 'Councils have invested millions in providing sexual health services since taking over responsibility for public health three years ago, and this treatment could help reduce levels of HIV in the community.
'However our position has always been that responsibility for funding PrEP should lie within the NHS rather than councils.'
