HYNDBURN Council is £200,000 down on its rent collections, according to a new Government league table for local authority housing.

The borough came in the "top 30" showing the worst records of rent collection. But although it is 27th in the 308-name nationwide league, the council argues that it is above its target of collecting 97 per cent of rent. Blackburn with Darwen Council is 13 places below in 40th position.

Hyndburn should have collected almost £8 million in rent in 1996/97, but £200,000 is yet to be recovered - 2.53 per cent of all rents due.

Hyndburn Council defended its position in the league, saying that the rent collectable includes both current and former tenant arrears, which occur when people are evicted for non-payment of rent or leave still owing money.

Rona Courtney, housing manager, said: "The level of rent arrears is influenced by social factors such as the type of area, the average income of households and the turnover of properties. A local factor in Hyndburn is the high turnover of tenancies, 16 per cent.

"We do work consistently to prevent arrears arising and to recover debts that have occurred, but there is always more that could be done, particularly in the areas of debt prevention."

She added: "Our local target is to achieve an improvement of five per cent in the level of current rent arrears and we expect to reach this by the end of March, 1998."

In response to the figures, housing minister Hilary Armstrong said local authorities with high rent arrears should look at new ways of preventing and managing the problem. She added: "I hope that this is just a blip in the figures and I look forward to seeing some improvement by the poor performers next year."

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