A VALLEYS council has slashed the amount of rent owed to it by council house tenants by almost 50 per cent in the last two years.

Rent arrears among council tenants in Blaenau Gwent county borough council now stand at £596,267 - compared to £1,009,798 just two years ago.

Of the money still outstanding, £50,144 is owed by long-term debtors and a total of £190,629 is made up of debts of more than £1,000.

Councillor Royston Welch, executive member for resources, said: "Rent collection is an area that we have targeted for improvement over the past few years and we have been generally a lot more pro-active.

"We haven't come down on people with a heavy stick but we can't tolerate non-payments. We have to pursue rent collection because other services will suffer otherwise."

The authority has used a number of methods to improve rent collection. A council spokeswoman said: "We have increased staff resources, introduced IT equipment and implemented more robust arrears recovery guidance."