Housing transfer ballot backed
THE Assembly has cleared the way for a make-or-break ballot to decide the fate of thousands of council homes.
Deputy Housing Minister Jocelyn Davies has approved a 97-page council document that forms the offer to tenants in Neath Port Talbot and the Swansea Valley. It sets out everything from rents to tenant rights.
Cabinet members yesterday unanimously endorsed the document as the basis of consultation leading to a ballot of tenants next year — but not before two members of rival parties locked horns.
The authority wants to hand over all 9,000-plus of its houses and flats to a new social landlord, called NPT Homes.
It argues this is the only way the homes can be brought up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, or WHQS, as it does not have the £152 million needed to achieve this.
There is ferocious opposition from certain quarters — including some Neath Port Talbot councillors – with campaigners claiming it represents privatisation and will lead to spiralling rents.
During yesterday's special cabinet scrutiny committee, Labour councillor Peter Rees, a leading transfer supporter, hit out at a letter Plaid Cymru leader Del Morgan had published in the Evening Post.
He said he had read Councillor Morgan's "untrue" statements with disbelief and disgust, adding: "He knows they were untrue and yet he put them in writing.
"I'm sad to say it is Plaid Cymru that has made this a housing issue.
"Our concern is to give tenants homes that are fit for the 21st Century."
But Councillor Morgan said he had responded to an earlier letter in the Post by Councillor Rees which stated councillors unanimously supported the transfer.
"That did not apply to me and I felt obliged to write back and put the record straight," he said.
Council leader Ali Thomas said it was time to put political comments aside and get on with the job.
"True socialists like myself have to swallow a lot of pride," he said. "When we sit down and look at the consequences if we don't go down this road, it's frightening. This is about people's homes. They will make the ultimate decision, but we will protect their rights."
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Deal to protect Neath Port Talbot Council workers should housing transfer take place
6 Comments
by David, Neath
Sunday, November 29 2009, 8:55PM
“To quote from the recent all party House Of Commons Report that rejects stock transfer and supports council housing-
'It is time to invest in a new generation of first class council housing. A major council house building and renovation programme will meet the urgent need of the 1.8 million households on council waiting lists,who don't want or can't get a mortgage'.
The report also says-
'Tenants are at the heart of a growing coalition opposing disinvestment and attacks on council secure tenancies.'
On page 55 the report states 'Stock transfer is privatisation'.
The report's chairman is the Labour MP Austin Mitchell .He also wrote its foreword.
The report is dedicated to the late Alan Walters of the Defend Council Housing Campaign who 'worked tirelessly ' to make the report the success it became.
It is a great pity and a scandal that the NPT cllrs could not work as tirelessly in defence of council housing in Neath and Port Talbot.”
by Ifor, Neath
Sunday, November 29 2009, 10:49AM
“'True socialists like myself have to swallow a lot of pride' says Cllr leader Ali Thomas as he justifies the stock transfer of thousands of council homes to a new private housing oganisation .
Sad really. Here is a local leader of New Labour supporting a policy that even Mrs Thatcher did not attempt .When exactly did New Labour morph into a Thatcherite party and is there anyone in New Labour locally prepared to stand up and speak out in defence of council housing?
ifor
ifor”
by huw, NPT
Sunday, November 29 2009, 6:56AM
“Stock transfer is certainly not inevitable,
In June of this year tenants in South Cambridgeshire voted against stock transfer by a huge majority.
There the council employed similar tactics to the ones we have seen in Neath and Port Talbot.
Millions were spent on a propaganda roadshow, a mass of glossy literature, teams of consultants and so called Independent Tenant Advisers, paid canvassers, show houses, taxis, the hiring of expensive hotels and so on.
Despite the heavy pressure and cajoling the tenants turned out in force to reject stock transfer.They saw it for what it was... a form of privatisation!
The NPT council is also spending millions trying to persuade tenants that stock transfer is inevitable.
However,its plan has been tainted from the start.A year after the the original decision to start the stock transfer process New Labour's Head of Housing and the leader of Plaid Cymru cannot even agree on what that council vote was about....and have clashed vehemently in the Evening Post over the origins of stock transfer in Neath and Port Talbot.
Many tenants across the UK are involved in battles to save council housing from the privateers.They are mainly organised in Defend Council Housing networks and usually are able to spend only a tiny fraction of what the pro stock transfer lot are spending...despite this lack of funding in South Cambridgeshire and in places like Swansea tenants have taken on the stock transfer privatisation lobby...and won!
Huw”
by Linda Ware, Neath
Saturday, November 28 2009, 10:22PM
“Funny how in Swansea and other areas where there was not a Labour controlled authority asking the tenants to vote for transfer the Labour Councillors came out in force to fight the privatisation of council houses. Councillors from every party except the Labour Party in Neath have come out in support of not privatising council houses in Neath Port Talbot due to the fact it IS privatisation, tenants will LOSE their secure tenancy and once handed over there is NO turning back ever. Why are the Labour Councillors of Neath Port Talbot unanimous in their decision not to support the retention of council housing stock? Yet councillors from every other persuasion in this authority have. If the authority has no choice in this matter, what is the point of giving a vote to the tenants. Of course there is a choice and the Welsh Assembly Government have given the tenants a vote on the issue, so please give us our vote. We are entitled to it.”
by david, neath
Saturday, November 28 2009, 7:35PM
“The tenants will have the final say but the lack of backbone by New Labour in Neath and Port Talbot is plain for all to see.
The government had no trouble shovelling 61 billion pounds in a secret loan to the bankers
last year but claims there is no money to fund council housing!
Cllr Ali Thomas says he has to 'swallow a lot of pride' while agreeing to the stock transfer proposals but it seems to me that the real socialists have been in the defend council housing campaign.
Why should tenants agree to vote to lose their secure tenancies and see their homes transferred out of council control when housing associations across the country are in financial trouble because of the bankingl crisis and property collapse of the past two years?
We are deep in a recession with millions unemployed and a massive number of home repossessions.Many young people cannot get mortgages as rules are tightened and yet here in Neath and Port Talbot New Labour is trying to hand the council housing stock on a plate to a private limited housing company.
There is an alternative which involves the government funding council homes refurbishments directly. I know that the Defend Council Housing Campaign is supported by dozens of MPs and a recent parliamentary rejects stock transfer and calls for the direct funding option.
New Labour in NPT is a poor show!
david”
by Statutory Tenancies are Best, Successful Swansea NO
Saturday, November 28 2009, 11:43AM
“The Ali defence of bribing people to give up their Statutory Tenancies on a promise of a NEW bathroom and Windows is about as disingenuous as OFFERING a cruise on the Oasis of the Seas but only if you can swim out to the ship in Mid Atlantic.!!Where is all the extra money to come from --?Dubai..lot of nice flats there too!!VOTE NO..MEAN IT ..NO MEANS NO..!!”