Tenants Vote 'No' to Housing Stock Transfer (South West Surrey Liberal Democrats)

South West Surrey Liberal Democrats <info@swsurreylibdems.org.uk>

Tenants Vote 'No' to Housing Stock Transfer

December 10, 2005 1:16 PM

Waverley's tenants have given a vote of confidence to their Council landlord, despite having to go without improvements to their homes and housing services. In a ballot that ended at midday on Friday 9th December, 52.75 % of tenants who voted in the stock transfer ballot wanted to keep the Council as their landlord even though they knew that this would mean less money being spent on their homes and probable reductions in housing services.

On hearing the result, Lib Dem Councillor Ken Reed, Waverley's portfolio holder for housing and community welfare said: "The Council would not have chosen to seek to transfer its housing if there had been any other way that it could guarantee meeting the Government's Decent Home Standard and providing the kind of services and homes that our tenants deserve. We will do our utmost to carry on being a good landlord, but we have always made clear that this decision would leave us with some extremely difficult choices about how to manage and maintain our tenants' homes.

Democracy means respecting outcomes to votes and this outcome suggests that Tenants believe that the Council has done a good job as landlord and, therefore, will strive to carry on doing its best for Tenants within budgetary constraints"

Of a total of 4,095 votes cast, 1,926 voted for and 2,150 voted against, with 19 spoilt ballots. There will be a meeting shortly for councillors to consider how Waverley will manage and maintain tenants' homes in the future.