Tenants will decide (From Stroud News and Journal)

Tenants will decide

PLANS are being developed which will determine what becomes of the district's council housing should tenants vote for a transfer later this year.

Stroud District Council, which has argued that keeping the houses will be a massive drain on resources, wants to set up a registered social landlord (RSL) to own and manage the homes.

Current tenants will make the final decision, however, when the plans go to the vote. At a recent meeting of the council members agreed the best option would be to set up a stand-alone, not-for-profit landlord.

The other main option put before the council was to create a landlord which would be part of an existing group.

But councillors decided it was best to keep control closer to home, as a stand-alone RSL can be managed by locally-appointed representatives and focus on local issues.

If tenants give the plans the green light the RSL will be staffed by existing council employees, providing some continuity after the transfer.

The proposal was fully supported by the Conservative administration and grudgingly accepted by most opposition councillors, although concerns were raised that the RSL would be vulnerable to a take-over by a larger group and that tenants had not yet been consulted thoroughly enough.

Labour councillors argued only a fraction of the councils' tenants had attended a special conference in Dursley designed to explain the options.

But the administration claimed many of them had come on behalf of tenants' associations and had the authority to speak for those they represented.

"Through newsletters and the special conference tenants were given the opportunity to hear about the options and they clearly favour the creation of a new, independent organisation," said Cllr John Stephenson-Oliver, leader of the council.

"Further detailed reports presented to the cabinet and council strongly indicated that this is the best route which is why we have decided to adopt this as the way forward."

The council now needs to identify nominees to become prospective board members for the RSL, should it be created.

This 'shadow' board will be made up of tenants, councillors and independent people.

SB