Advertisement
Housing transfer go-ahead
Reporter: Lobby Correspondent
Date online: 17 December 2009
A year-long campaign to transfer Oldham Council’s housing stock into private hands has been given the go-ahead.
Tenants will be balloted over transferring ownership of the council’s homes to First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO), which wants to become a housing association taking over the ownership and management of 12,500 houses and flats.
The move was announced by Housing minister John Healey last night.
If the transfer went ahead it would mean £149 million will be invested in homes and services over the next five years — significantly more than Oldham Council has admitted it can afford.
Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas said: “It means we can start to spend money on new houses and improvements to existing houses which we need, but it is dependent on a ballot of tenants and they will have the final say.
Transfer would only go ahead if the majority of votes cast are in favour of the scheme.
Mr Healey said the Homes and Communities Agency would ensure the consultation exercise and ballot were “balanced, neutral and factual.”
Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher said questions needed to be answered before the ballot took place.
He said: “It is not the way to handle the need for housing. The tenants should be careful before moving outside the council control.
“There would be no public accountability if things go wrong.”
Comments
How have the council fiddled this one, be warned your rent will rise look at all the other so call social landlords / HA's. And of course the taxpayer will again suffer
Tens of thousands have been spent on glossy leaftlets to blackmail us to give the assets of the town away forever. They say that if it goes ahead we will get new bathrooms, windows,kitchens e.t.c but if we don't we will get nothing and be left to rot in shoddy homes (seriously! you should see the biased "information" they scare people with. Not a single positive reason for rejecting the ballot and not a single negative reason for accepting.
you will not get new bathrooms or kitchens.. they are bringing the homes upto the goverments standard of a decent home which means a kitchen only needs to be replaced if it is more than 20 years old and a bathroom if it is more than 30 years. so dont expect much. i have on good faith because i asked a area manager!! its a con
Why not report the glossy leaftlets to respectable body as being biased and see what they say
having moved into limeside 3 years ago (ex council estate) so far ive been promised new central heating/loft insulation/painting outside the property/rewiring/ so far they have no funds,the maintenance is appalling my gutters have been fixed 4 times and still not right,the contractors these housing assosiations use are just cowboys...be warned you might not be worse off but you will be no better off.
FCHO/OMBC have told us nothing about how the new Association will finance heating - it cant be VAT exempt so presumably all of us on district heating will have to face massive rises in our weekly charges?
wish i had someone to do all my repairs for me in the timescales i wanted to the standard I demand. But hey ho the natwest mortgage dept dont provide that.
Having lost my house 2 years ago (having owned for 14 years) due to ill health I would love to own my own house with a nat west mortgage or any other company for that matter. Not having a choice where you live and having a hostel as a real alternative at christmas is a heartbreaking situation!
Have Your Say
just wondering!
what sort of money will be exchanged if the councils housing stock is passed over to a private company?
surely first choice will be paying the market value on every single one?
By fedupoldhamer @ 17/12/2009 15:23:15