Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tenants say no to council housing sell-off...

South Kesteven District Council’s plan to sell off its 6,500 homes for a fraction of their value has been rejected by a massive 3-1 vote by its tenants.

The Conservatives who control SKDC now have serious questions to answer about the wisdom and cost of their glossy campaign to offload their housing stock on a newly formed housing association.

Labour and the LibDems were defeated 27-6 when they tried to stop the ballot as a waste of public money by an out of touch council.

But the result of the ballot announced today proves them right.

Three out of four tenants who voted rejected the plan. Turn out was over 75% which indicates an absolute majority of the 6,500 tenants said no thanks.

I’m not an expert in housing matters, and could see arguments on both sides. But I stayed out of the long running debate.

Congratulations to Rob Shorrock and colleagues at SKDC who have clearly won the overwhelming backing of tenants for their campaign to keep the management of local council housing accountable to elected district councillors.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, congratulations to Rob Shorrock.

He makes some telling points on his blog.

When South Kesteven's "Sale of the Century" started 62% of tenants opposed flogging off the entire housing stock to a stooge housing association.

The came a torrent of publically funded sell off promotions.

Free DVDs were given away.

Campaign caravans were parked in village squares.

Council staff were suborned into promoting the sell off.

Consultants were hired and made wealthy.

The result?

The proportion of tenants opposing the "Sale of the Century" rose from 62% to 73%

Common sense prevailed over all the crap from South Kesteven's ruling Tories.

This is a great day for the area.

fairdealphil said...

well said brynley - and thanks to the link to his site.

skdc might have done better on their sale of the century if they had put bruno in charge.

Anonymous said...

Thanks everyone. I still can't quite believe it. I have had a lot of calls from tenants today wanting to find out the result. One lady burst into tears when I told her and said it was a huge weight of her mind (she has been a tenant for 30 years)

There were be a lot of analysis which I think will focus on how the council got it so wrong. I certainly think that some people lost sight of the ball. Being surrounded by consultants with a vested interest that stock transfer process goes ahead can do that to you, I am sure.

By the way, I will link to you blog.

Cheers

Rob

Anonymous said...

Thanks Phil,

I'll take the job.

fairdealphil said...

rob:

any idea how much the sale of the century fiasco cost us council taxpayers in SKDC???