COUNCIL house tenants in East Lancashire owe £2.3million in rent arrears, it was revealed today.

The Government has published a league of shame to highlight which authorities are the worst at collecting rent from tenants.

Tenants in Blackburn and Darwen owe a total of £1.4 million - although the council's rent collection record is better than other similarly sized auth- orities.

Blackburn with Darwen finished 68th in a league table of 299 councils across England.

The worst performer in East Lancashire was Hyndburn Council (43rd) which is owed £525,000 but where there are fewer rent payers.

Rossendale finished 62nd with arrears of £536,000, Burnley 80th with arrears of £577,000 and Pendle 120th with arrears of £325,000.

The best performer in East Lancashire was Ribble Valley Borough Council which finished 253rd with only £51,000 owed in rent arrears.

Housing Minister Hilary Armstrong criticised a nationwide rise in rent arrears and said more money from rent would mean better services for tenants.

Blackburn with Darwen Council housing director Phil Richards said: "Obviously as a council we are concerned at any level of arrears but within this borough there are areas of poverty, deprivation and low incomes.

"Half of the arrears are current arrears and half are former arrears so we have less than three per cent of current rent arrears."

Ken Bury, director of regeneration at Hyndburn Council said the council was introducing a new computer system in April to make debt collection more effective.

But he added: "Each council has different policies on write offs so it is difficult to see how these comparisons can be made between councils by the Government.

Burnley Council's head of housing management Margaret Duthie said: "Burnley is an area of low incomes and problems with multiple debt are widespread.

"The current rent arrears at March 1998 totalled £399,885 and former tenants arrears were £177,434.

"The current arrears were three and a half per cent of the rent due which was only slightly above Burnley's government target for the year."

The latest figure, reported to January's finance committee, showed the balance of rent arrears outstanding at £654,097.

But Mrs Duthie said: "These figures are distorted by the backlog of benefit claims which the benefits service is tackling as a high priority.

"Once these problems are resolved there may be a higher level of arrears outstanding but we will be taking the appropriate action to reduce this."

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