Cepheids, supernovae and the value of H₀

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The calibration of the Type Ia supernova distances using HST observations of Cepheid variables is discussed. A new maximum likelihood method of calibration is applied to derive the PL relation for a composite sample of Cepheids in the LMC and in the SNIa host galaxies NGC5253 and IC4182. Our results show that the calibration of the Cepheid PL relation is robust both to sampling error and to luminosity and period selection effects. Hence, the outstanding uncertainty in deriving estimates of H₀ from SNIa remains the dispersion of the SNIa luminosity function, and not unresolved systematic errors in its Cepheid calibration.