“Mr Peter Rees, if you are not misinformed I can only assume you are deliberately misinforming people.

You claimed "The Westminster Report does not apply to Wales", yet is patently does!

You may say that Housing is a devolved issue but you must know that local authorities in Wales are currently prevented from making any independent choices due to financial restraints under the national Housing Revenue Account, which you must also know is being reviewed by the Housing Minister John Healey! This is why Neath Port Talbot should withdraw their resolution proposing to ballot tenants on transfer of our Council housing.

In the light of the government consultation on the new Housing Finance system, Swindon Council ruling Tory group has withdraw their resolution proposing to ballot tenants on transfer of our Council housing to a Housing Association. Their decision does not mean that the ruling group has abandoned the idea of transfer, but they have had the sense to recognise that the government has proposed a fundamental change to the system which means that the financial calculations on which the transfer proposal was made are out of date. Surely therefore Neath Port Talbot should have the sense to do precicely the same.

Back in January you claimed that unless tenants voted in favour of transfer rents could double or even triple, yet both the Deputy Minister for Housing at the Assembly, Jocelyn Davies and South West Wales AM, Peter Black have since refuted your claims as totally unrealistic!

I can only imagine why you would risk you reputation as a local councillor in order to continue making such outlandish claims...”

“Mr. Peter Rees, in the real world Councillors do what is best for the people who elect them. Your last reply is disengenious to say the least. I believe the vote taken by the full council was a decision to give tenants a vote, not to transfer the housing stock outright as you infer. Why do you contstantly state that this is where you are and this is what the people must put up with. I thought we lived in a democracy where the wishes of the majority of the people are conveyed through their elected members to the authorities who are public servants put in place to manage the holdings of that authority. It seems the people of Neath Port Talbot are constantly dictated to and told you have no choice but to do what we tell you. We must read between the lines Cllr Peter Rees and we must evaluate who will benefit most from the transfer of council housing stock in Neath Port Talbot. As tenants we obviously have to use our vote wisely and to have people threaten that our houses will fall apart around your ears if we do not listen and do what you say, does not appear to be very democratic. Listen to the people of Neath Port Talbot Mr. Rees, all of them, not just your chosen few and give us the truth about why Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and the elected members are not fighting tooth and nail with the Welsh Assembly and Westminster on behalf of their electorate instead of using heavy handed bullying tactics and shallow bribery to get what is best for who? Your people attempt to dispel the myth, as you call it ' better the devil you know' but is it not true Councillor Rees? Remember if the people believe those elected have not done their job properly, every 4 years we get a vote to change that. Once the council homes of in excess of 9,000 families are transferred, if you have your way, then the people have lost that privilege regarding the homes they live in. They will no longer be able to vote the people who control their homes and ultimately their lives out of office. They are stuck, no Councillor ro run to and complain, no democracy or pride surrounding their homes, just plain ownership. Better the devil you know Mr. Rees? Yes I believe so as the council tenants with their votes have some control over their future homes that way. This is the power of the people Cllr Rees, something that should not be taken lightly by elected representatives.”

“It is a great shame that the Head of Housing for a Labour controlled authority cannot find merit in a well researched report issued by the House of Commons Council Housing group of MP 's whose chairman is the Labour MP Austin Mitchell.
Of course Austin Mitchell has a different and positive view of council homes and is aware of the massive resistance to housing privatisation across the UK during the past 15 years.
He knows and it is made clear in the report , that the 'real world' in which our pro privatisation Labour group operates in has been constructed by both conservative and New Labour policies during the past 30 years or so.
It is a free market ,neo liberal and privatising world where public housing has consistently been denied the investment needed to house working class people.
We see the results all around us.... a deep and savage banking and financial crisis which has occured because New Labour took a hands off approach to financial controls, record homes being repossessed as ordinary people find they cannot keep up with their mortgage repayments, growing numbers of homeless people , a collapse in the private property market, unemployment soaring into the millions, and ,yes, Housing Associations set up to replace Council house ownership now under increasing financial pressure as a result of poor management and the crisis in property prices.
New Labour council chiefs obviously believe that the answer is to hand over the council homes to a private housing company. This is reckless folly worthy of a city fat cat!
Austin Mitchell argues, instead ,in his report that 'This is the moment to put council housing back at the heart of council provision' I agree with him!
Huw”

“Mr Pudner, I have read the report and considered its merits. If the fourth option was a reality then it might have some merit. In the real world I have to deal with the facts that are placed before me. The whole NPTCouncil considered those facts in September 08 and voted unanimously (including Cllr Martyn Peters) to transfer the housing stock as the best option to attain WHQS.”

“Mr Lynch, why do you always have to be abusive? I am not misinformed and you know full well that Housing is a devolved issue and the Westminister Report on page 25 states the case of the "fourth option." The Government has ignored that plea for the last seven years. What do we now do? Allow our tenants to live in homes that will deteriorate over the years because of lack of investment or try to obtain the WHQS by the means of a Community Mutual Housing model. The tenants will have the choice in the ballot.”