Council house vote biased says Meacher

AN MP has provided details of why he believes the vote by Oldham Council tenants for a new landlord was rigged.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher was challenged by Oldham Council’s assistant executive director for housing, Mark Reynolds, to back up his “serious allegations”.

The Labour MP has opposed the transfer of ownership and management of houses from the council to First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) and said it was not a fair, proper and just ballot.

More than two-thirds of tenants voted with 7,787 saying yes, while 1,210 voted against.

The result will free up £149 million worth of new investment.

But Mr Meacher says tenants were given only one-sided information and only half would get improvements to their homes.

He has stressed that he doesn’t believe there was any question of vote rigging but that he considers it a fiddle as highly relevant information that could drastically affect the result was deliberately withheld from the tenants.

His evidence includes:

::Tenants were told they would gain by receiving new kitchens and bathrooms but only 5,000 will get these and the other 8,000 will get very small improvements.

::Tenants will lose out over the next five years and beyond as they will be collectively deprived of Government investment totalling £387 million and were never told this.

Mr Meacher has several letters from tenants complaining they were misled. They include grievances of “heavily biased propaganda”, “tenants didn’t really have any choice”, “the information process has been totally biased”, and “the hard sell was so clear in this process.”

He says that he has evidence from tenants of other flaws including people being told their tenancy could be in doubt if they didn’t vote yes, independent advisers saying they were paid by the council, and details of a fuel increase if the transfer went through being kept secret.

He says that tenants weren’t given the choice of staying with the council that Housing Minister John Healey wanted them to have.

Before the ballot, Mr Healey said that “Oldham should fully consider the self-financing proposals and assess this alternative option carefully.”

Mr Meacher said that the offer document stated that FCHO, would get charitable status but the Charities Commission has actually removed charitable status from all housing associations in general.

Mr Meacher has sent his evidence to Mr Reynolds and says: “All this was deliberately concealed from the tenants.

“That is why I consider this whole process to have been unfair and why I am demanding that a proper consultation should now be undertaken which is truly balanced and that a new vote be taken so that the tenants can genuinely have the choice of making up their minds on the basis of the whole truth.”