BURNLEY is heading deeper into housing crisis with rent loss on empty council estate homes hitting record levels.

New figures reveal the council will lose more than £640,000 in rent income this year on houses which are boarded up for months before they are ready to re-let.

The total is £155,000 more than expected at the start of the financial year, the housing committee will hear tonight, and amounts to a loss of £14,000 a week.

In addition, the voids homes headache has cost the town £240,000 over the last nine months, on shuttering and alarms to protect empty properties from burglary and vandalism.

The cost of encouraging new tenants to take on empty houses by providing re-decoration vouchers, has already topped £67,000 and is heading for another overspend this year.

Although recent attention on housing has focused on allegations that some councillors helped people queue-jump waiting lists, the report shows Burnley is awash with unlet properties.

It says there are currently 345 voids, over six per cent of the town's 5,700 housing stock.

Worst hit are the West End estates which alone have 177 voids - 15 per cent of the local stock.

The report states the increasing number of voids is having a detrimental affect on the overall environmental appearance of certain estates and the "stigma of unattractive estates" is creating long term poverty implications.

Councillors will also hear of a voids action plan aimed at addressing the problem.

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