The Official “Offer Document” from the District Council has just gone out to tenants. It’s a 68 page book dealing with the pros and cons of transferring the council’s housing stock to a housing association.
It’s a complicated subject – too complicated to cover in a few paragraphs. But basically, if the tenants agree to the transfer, their homes will be taken over by a housing association which will have more resources to maintain them and improve them. One of the reasons for this is that the council isn’t allowed to operate on a level playing field – for example it has to give some of the rent it collects over to the government for use elsewhere in the country. This year it will hand over nearly half a million pounds (?467,000).
But ultimately it’s up to the tenants – they will have a secret ballot, and if they don’t agree to it, the transfer won’t happen.