AN INFLATION-busting 5.25 per cent rent rise faces Burnley Council house tenants this year - more than twice the increase proposed for council householders in Pendle.

Housing councillors last night gave the go-ahead for the increase which is above Government guidelines - but which is needed, they say , to fill a near £500,000 gap in the housing budget.

It still has to be ratified by the full council which, because of pressure of business, was adjourned to a date to be fixed next week.

Housing bosses warned that without the average £2.08p hike, taking average weekly rents to £41.68p, the Labour council would face further problems in its plans to "sell off" the entire 5,600 stock to a new publicly-controlled Local Housing Company next year.

This would have meant the the stock valuation falling by £1.3 million, making it far more difficult for the council to get full funding for the transfer.

Pendle has said it aims to restrict rent rises to just 2.4 per cent.

Housing managers say that to keep the increase to around five per cent, they have had to find a quarter of a million pounds budget savings and have raided bank balances to the tune of £425,000.

Without these measures, the rent rise would have been in double figures or services decimated, they add.

Opposition members of the council described it as "totally unacceptable".

But Labour housing chairman Rafique Malik said the increase was the best way forward in the very difficult situation facing the council.

It underlined the need for the authority to press ahead with stock transfer - a move which would guarantee rent levels around the rate of inflation and unlock £40 million for improvements.

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