THE number of people living in Burnley is still dropping, an official report has said.

Thousands of residents have moved out of the borough over the past decade despite millions of pounds of investment.

The town’s MP said people were coming back and the decline had been ‘arrested’, but council chiefs admitted they were still concerned about falling numbers.

According to the Audit Commission, Burnley was the only part of East Lancashire to have lost population overall since 2001 because of ‘out migration’.

Steve Rumbelow, the chief executive of Burnley Council, said: “It’s something we have been looking at for a number of years now.

“There has been quite a significant slowdown in the loss of population. A number of years back we were haemorrhaging but now we are stabilising.

“It is still a matter for concern, but we are much more comfortable now we are starting to get it under control.”

Mr Rumbelow said the struggling local economy and the state of the housing market were the main reasons for the decline.

This was backed up by the Audit Commission report, which warned that East Lancashire as a whole would be hit if the £350million Housing Market Renewal scheme, cancelled by the government, is not replaced.

The report said: “As a whole Pennine Lancashire is characterised by very low population and household growth compared to regional and national averages. Burnley continues to lose population because of out-migration of residents.”

In 2009, the population of Burnley stood at 85,600 - more than 3,000 lower than in 2002, according of the Office for National Statistics.

During this time the rest of the Lancashire County Council area increased slightly to 1.16million.

Between 2008 and 2009, Burnley’s population dropped further by 400 people.

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said he believed the latest figures would paint a better picture.

He said: “I think it will be stabilised, and hopefully moving back up. We have managed to arrest the decline, with jobs coming back to Burnley with the new college and university centre. We now need people to come back to deliver prosperity for the future.”