Housing vote 'slap in face' (From Stroud News and Journal)

Housing vote 'slap in face'

A FIERCE row has erupted over the future of council homes after Stroud District Council decided they should remain under Ebley Mill's control.

Cabinet members voted on Thursday to recommend keeping the authority's 5,200 properties under their control rather than transferring them to a housing association.

But opposition councillors and tenant leaders said the decision was a "slap in the face" that ignored support for a 'community gateway' model, led by tenants.

A ballot in November 2003 showed the majority of tenants were against transfer - despite council warnings that they would only be able to afford the bare minimum of repairs - but tenant leaders are convinced a tenant-run housing association is the only way forward.

The value of the housing stock was valued at around £43 million in 2003, which means that even after the Government had taken its cut, the council would stand to make around £20 million from selling it.

But housing cabinet member Cllr John Jeffreys told the cabinet: "It is quite clear that the majority of tenants are implacably opposed to stock transfer, however you dress it up, and want to stay with the council.

"During the first process in 2003 we were constantly accused of not listening to the wider body of tenants.

"On this occasion, on the basis of wider tenant opinion, I am moving stock retention."

Labour councillors were outraged by the decision, accusing the cabinet of ignoring a growing body of support for the 'community gateway' model, where the homes are controlled by a tenant-run housing association.

They have already called for the decision to be examined by a scrutiny committee before council makes the final decision in September.

Deputy group leader Cllr Mattie Ross said: "This mean trick is a slap in the face for tenants.

"We agreed with tenants that the process followed this time seemed to be more open and honest, only to get this shock U-turn at the end."

Council tenant Sandra Mutton, one of the leading tenant advisors to the council, added her dismay at the decision.

"We feel we have been robbed," she said. "A community gateway association could be the answer to all our problems.

"They let us work since last November on a solution and then completely ignored us."