COUNCIL house rents in Burnley could soar by nearly £40-a-week over the next five years even if there are virtually no improvements to the decaying stock, council chiefs warned today.

And if the council spent the £30 million needed to bring the 5,600 homes up to date, tenants would see average weekly rents rocket to over £116!

The nightmare projections have been produced by council housing chiefs to underline their belief that the £70 million transfer of the entire stock to a publicly controlled local housing company is the only solution to Burnley's municipal housing crisis.

By stark contrast, they say, transfer would result in rent demands, now averaging £48-a-week, would go up by just £9.58p - a 20 per cent rise over the same five year period.

And that would also allow the massive spending on improvements to go ahead at no extra cost. Housing director Ian Saville says the £100 plus-a-week scenario is for comparison purposes only, because under the present council-owned system Burnley would simply not be allowed to borrow the cash to carry out the major refurbishment.

He said Burnley's bid to transfer to a housing company, made up of council, tenant and independent directors, was based on rents rising by inflation plus one per cent over the first five years - in line with Government guidelines.

Although there was no guarantee that this would always be the case, the local housing company would be committed to maintaining the same low level rises over a full 30 year period.

Large, out-of-line annual rises would simply not be allowed by the regulatory Housing Corporation, he added.

The new deal for tenants would see a full £205 million spent on modernisations and repairs to council houses over the next 30 years.

Council tenants will be asked to vote on whether to accept transfer next year.

If they give the go-ahead the new housing company will take control in April 2000.

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