THREE families including young children were evicted from their homes in Burnley within three hours.

Burnley and Padiham Community Housing say the situation could easily have been avoided had the tenants responded to repeated warnings and advice.

Two of the families left the night before the eviction officers arrived. The other had to be asked to leave. The members have now received advice from Burnley Council and Social Services about temporary accommodation. Their future may be in the hands of private landlords.

"Tenants are running the risk of becoming homeless if they do not take responsibility for rent payments, " warned housing company chief executive Ian Saville.

He was speaking after the three families were evicted in the space of three hours. All the households involved were families with children. They all had rent arrears that they had failed to address, despite repeated contact and payment advice from staff in the arrears recovery team over a long period.

Arrears in at least one case amounted to more than £2,000. All involved unpaid rents dating back six months or more.

"This is so sad," said Mr Saville. This company is not in the business of making people homeless. We would never get to the eviction stage if people contacted us early and did the basic things they needed to do to get rent payments sorted out".

The increasingly slow and complex housing benefit system was a factor in some cases.

"At least one family is now homeless because the tenant did not fill in a housing benefit renewal form. Had she done so, and taken the time to make sure it was sorted out, she would not have lost her home".

He added: "Sometimes I hear tenants say that they do not pay rent because they are on income support, Job Seekers Allowance or because they are ill or retired. My message to them is simply everyone pays rent. There are no exceptions."

He stressed to every tenant that it was their responsibility to make sure the rent was paid. Housing Benefit was not an excuse for non-payment.

The system may be struggling to cope but if tenants didn't claim properly and provide the information required within 28 days, they would not get paid.

He urged anyone with problems to contact the payment advice team on 01282 664754/59 if they needed advice on payments or housing benefit issues.

Although the company was a business, it was a non-profit making concern. Anyone who did not pay their rent was reducing the amount of money available for improvements to tenants' homes.