ALMOST £500,000 worth of outstanding council house rents have been written off from AWOL tenants.

Wycombe District Council wrote off £468,175.16 rent arrears in six years because the cost of pursuing tenants who fled with rent debts would be too great.

Bosses hailed a cut in debt – but an opposition councillor warned the move could send out the wrong message.

Councillor Chris Watson, responsible for housing, said: “This is lost money. It is when we frankly reach the end of the line.”

Legal and debt collection costs would be too high, he said – and officers get cash back from the ‘vast majority’.

The figures rose from £82,503.22 to £114,464.17 from 2006/07 to 2007/08 – but fell to £52,512.99.

Conservative Cllr Watson, cabinet member for homes and housing, said: “I think it is an absolutely fantastic figure. I am very proud of the collection people in my department.”

The debt represented a small fraction of the annual rent collection, £26m, he said.

And he said the council was battling to hit a target to collect 4.1 per cent of rent from existing tenants. This was 4.9 per cent from April to December.

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Labour council leader Councillor Margaret Draper backed the policy of not chasing tenants if the cost exceeds the amount owed.

She said: “Unfortunately, what is the message that is going to the electorate? If people are then going down the path of saying ‘ha ha, I have got away with it’.”

The Micklefield councillor said: “My ward has a high council tenancy and the people I know, the great majority, about 99 per cent, are the sort of people who set their money aside for their council tax and rent.”

The council says it will try and help tenants who are struggling to pay their rent, including advice on entitlements to housing benefit, where some or all fees are waived.

It says court action to evict is a ‘last resort’.

The authority wants to transfer its 6,200 homes to a housing association, absolving it of rent collection duties (see links, bottom of story).

A transfer vote was defeated in 2000 but WDC hopes the October vote will go through. They say the new organisation would have more tenants on its board, making it ‘tenant led’.