MPs slam process to transfer council homes

A PAIR of Oldham MPs are urging tenants to vote against plans to transfer control of Oldham Council’s entire housing stock to First Choice Homes.

Michael Meacher, MP for Oldham West and Royton, and Ashton MP David Heyes, whose constituency includes Failsworth and Hollinwood, have expressed their views in a letter to Housing Minister John Healey.

They say the process is being rushed through with indecent haste and there are far too many questions left unanswered.

Both MPs are urging the Minister to call a halt to the process as well as advising tenants to vote no if the ballot does go ahead.


DEEPLY flawed, misleading and unfairly executed — they are just some of the words used by MPs Michael Meacher and David Heyes to describe the process under way to transfer the borough’s 11,900 council houses to a new housing association.



Calling on Housing Minister John Healey to postpone a ballot of tenants until all problems have been remedied, they claim the consultation process was biased and the transfer is the only option on offer.

In their letter to Mr Healey, the pair express their “deep concerns, on several counts, with regard to the procedure that has been followed”.

They added: “We believe that the consultation process has been inherently biased and that the consultation documents manifestly lack any information about the downside risks involved for tenants.

“Tenant representatives have provided us with a dossier of evidence about their dissatisfaction with the consultation and the manner with which it was conducted.

“No clear and final commitment has been made by the Department for Communities and Local Government to write off all the debt (currently £214 million) without which the promises of home improvements made to the tenants cannot be guaranteed.”

The MPs also hit out at the lack of other options being put forward, including self-financing — “the reference to self-financing in this case is buried deep in the consultation document and is extremely brief, cursory and explains nothing” — and remaining under council control if all the debt can be written off.

The speed of the process has also concerned the pair, telling Mr Healey: “We are disturbed that this stock transfer of 11,900 homes to a private organisation is being pushed through with undue haste by Oldham Council and First Choice Homes. In fact the time frame has been accelerated.

“Consultation ended on February 16 with a report going to Oldham Council’s Cabinet the day after, recommending proceeding to the second stage. This report was actually written on February 5, 11 days prior to the end of the consultation period.

“Indeed the full council has been denied the opportunity to debate the issue as the tenants have now received the ballot papers, which were posted on March 1, giving no time for representation regarding the consultation process, which we believe is flawed.”

The one option of a transfer to the newly-formed housing association also comes under attack.

The MPs say it will be a reinvention of First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO), which never managed to achieve more than a two-star performance rating.

They added: “Previous stock transfer exercises in Oldham have involved a competitive process between more than one housing association. Had this option been pursued, it would have allowed a wider pool of potential landlords to offer a broader range of benefits for tenants to choose from.

“Furthermore, the current proposal relies on very significant borrowing from private-sector finance and housing associations in general have already found themselves in considerable difficulties in the present market conditions.”

The MPs describe FCHO as having “no expertise or experience in acting independently as a housing association” and add that other associations, which have a genuine track record, have been forced over the last decade into amalgamations and take-overs.

“This has resulted in housing associations becoming large, regional organisations, often with no local offices, which means less accountability for Oldham tenants as their housing providers become more remote.

“We in Oldham have already seen SELHAL, West Pennine, Portico and AKSA disappear from the Oldham scene,” they said.

Mr Meacher and Mr Heyes also disputed FCHO’s statement that it will become a registered charity, saying the Charity Commission had assured them that charitable status was taken away from almost all housing associations some years ago.

“We understand only a few remain, which provide exclusive properties and services for the disable and at-risk groups,” they countered.

The pair said: “For all the above reasons we are asking for a halt to the stock transfer process, which has been deeply flawed, misleading and unfairly executed and to request that another consultation is undertaken, which remedies all the errors, misapprehensions and deceits in the current process.

“This will provide Oldham’s tenants with a much fairer, more balanced and honestly based choice.”