THE leader of an East Lancashire council has blasted Home Secretary Jack Straw for failing to reply to a cross-party letter asking him how many asylum seekers will be housed in Hyndburn.

And Coun Peter Britcliffe, who sent the letter on behalf of Hyndburn Council in April, said the government was ignoring the concerns of local authorities by putting asylum seekers in private accommodation without telling councils.

Mr Straw, the Blackburn MP, said he would investigate why no reply had been sent

Earlier this year the Lancashire Evening Telegraph revealed that a report to the council's housing committee showed that up to 390 asylum seekers could be housed in the borough under a government quota system, which aims to disperse asylum seekers from the south. Huncoat Coun Douglas Deakin and others believed that many could be placed in houses in the Within Grove estate, Huncoat, where around 70 council homes lie empty.

At a policy and resources committee meeting Coun Britcliffe said: "We have a totally bungling, incompetent Home Secretary.

"We wrote to him asking how many asylum seekers would come to Hyndburn but he has not had the courtesy to reply to us. He wants to transfer the problem of asylum seekers from the south to the north."

Coun Britcliffe accused the government of going behind the backs of local authorities by placing asylum seekers with private landlords. He highlighted a case where an asylum seeker -- who was staying in private accommodation -- was recently found trying to exchange a government food voucher in a Morrisons store in Pendle. It was the first time that the council were aware of his existence but later discovered that some 40 asylum seekers had been housed with a private landlord."

Mr Straw said: "I receive huge numbers of letters and it is physically not possible to reply to all them as quickly as I can. The normal practice is for one of my ministers to reply on such issues and I will look into what is happening."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "Peter should calm down and stop going over the top about this. The Conservatives are just being totally opportunistic about asylum seekers."