BURNLEY Council has launched a registration scheme in a bid to stop private landlords renting out substandard properties and "milking the benefits system".

The town has been chosen as one of five in the country to introduce the compulsory scheme. It was endorsed at a meeting of the council's executive committee last night.

As the project was launched by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, Burnley has been given £180,000 from government funds.

It was revealed today that private rented accommodation in the region has increased by 33 per cent since 1991.

The authority already has a voluntary accreditation scheme for private sector landlords but, according to a council report, the new programme is aimed at "tackling private landlords who are not prepared to join accreditation schemes or otherwise achieve good standards of management."

At the meeting last night Councillor Peter Kenyon welcomed the scheme and added: "This is good news for Burnley. We have made some progress in this area, but that progress has been on an entirely voluntary basis.

"We have been dealing with people who want to work with the council and they are decent landlords.

"They are not the people milking the benefits system by housing people who move around every couple of months, causing a considerable amount of nuisance and disturbance to long-term residents.

"I am sure we want to move as rapidly as we can to get a licensing scheme in place."

Councillor Carole Galbraith added: "Years ago, when most of our privately rented houses were owned by the Marsden and Burnley building societies, properties were kept in good repair because of conditions imposed on mortgages when they came up for re-sale.

"Those conditions no longer exist. If the new system does makes people on housing benefit get a decent home, and the government will no longer pay housing benefit to landlords who do not keep their houses up to a good standard, then that has got to be a good thing.

"It is a glimmer of hope that streets in Burnley will once again be pleasant places to walk down."

Private sector housing and landlords was discussed at length during the public consultation period of the investigation into the cause of the riots in June 2001 and was contained in the Task Force report.