BURNLEY'S spiralling council house rent arrears have been condemned as "a woeful tale of the ineffectiveness of housing management."

Independent group leader Harry Brooks told the policy committee the arrears headache, highlighted by the District Auditor in his annual letter to councillors, was "absolutely staggering."

The report from auditor Tim Watkinson showed total housing rents arrears jumped from £471,000 in April 1995 to more than £854,000 at the end of October last year. Mr Watkinson says the overall level of arrears has also increased significantly in recent months in the report published only days before the council transfers its entire 5,300-home housing stock and the arrears problem to the new Burnley and Padiham Housing Company.

Coun Brooks said the council was handing over a very sick organisation.

He added: "What is even worse is that we are handing over to the same doctors who caused the problems in the first place."

Coun Brooks' comments went without response from ruling Labour leaders.

In his letter, Mr Watkinson says recent rises in arrears were due in part to problems associated with problems surrounding the introduction of new housing benefits software. He says that two new recovery officers have been employed to improve collection rates but these could take time to have an impact.

He adds: "We're concerned that all possible action should be taken now to arrest the increase, especially given the impending stock transfer."

The letter also calls on councillors to tackle the rising number of empty council properties - a total of 7.4 per cent of all houses last year. He says: "We recognise the council's efforts - through its empty homes initiative - to reduce void levels.

"Nevertheless, this level of void properties is unsustainable and represents lost rent .

"Close control should be exercised on all empty properties, as void properties discourage prospective tenants from taking up nearby tenancies and can lead to problems in letting houses."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.