BRIGHTON and Hove Council has been rapped by Housing Minister Hilary Armstrong because of its rent arrears.

The towns had arrears of £2,174,000 - 6.9 per cent of the rent roll - at the end of March 1998, according to official figures.

But the authority says it has worked hard since that date to reduce the backlog to 5 per cent.

Across England, council rent arrears totalled £472 million.

The Brighton and Hove arrears until the end of March last year placed the council 35th worst out of 299 authorities across the country.

Lambeth was worst, with total rent arrears of £39 million, more than 30 per cent of its rent roll. South Somerset was best with rent arrears of just £96,000 - 0.5 per cent of its rent roll.

Miss Armstrong said: "Housing authorities with a poor record on rent arrears must look closely at their procedures and get to grips with the problems.

"More money from rent means better services for tenants. Next year's figures must improve."

Brighton and Hove Council says its figures rose to a slightly higher percentage than the national average that year following the amalgamation of the two former councils as each had different systems of dealing with the problem.

Aspokeswoman said councillors and officials decided to make tackling arrears a major task last year when they became concerned at the figure.

She added: "We made this a priority and we are making excellent progress."

Housing chairman Tehmtan Framroze said: "We are taking action to reduce arrears and we have been successful. The report refers to old figures not long after local government reorganisation."

Other councils across Sussex performed slightly better.

However, Department of Environment officials say comparing the figures could be misleading as the figures reflect decisions about when to write off arrears from Housing Revenue Accounts.

Also, a number of councils, including Hastings and Mid Sussex, have transferred housing stock to registered social landlords, so have no arrears.

Rother, which also transferred stock, had arrears of £200,000 (2.4 per cent).

The other figures were: Adur - arrears of £414,000 (5.4 per cent - 70th in table); Horsham - arrears of £590,000 (4.1 per cent - 122nd in table); Wealden £325,000 (4 per cent - 127th in table); Crawley £775,000 (3.3 per cent - 174th in table), Eastbourne £262,000 (2.5 per cent - 227th in table), Chichester £276,000 (2 per cent - 262nd in table), Lewes £159,000 (1.7 per cent - 274th in table), Arun £182,000 (1.6 per cent - 278th in table); Worthing £82,000 pounds (1.4 per cent - 285th in table).

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