Councillor attacks £5m housing transfer consultation cost

A WAR of words has erupted over moves to hand nearly 10,000 council homes to a new landlord.

Leading protester, Councillor Martyn Peters, has attacked the £5.2 million cost of the consultation exercise. He reckoned this would cost the authority's 9,300 tenants more than £500 each.

But housing director Tony Clements has hit back at the accusations. He said: "It simply is not true that each tenant will have to pay such a sum to cover the cost of our consultation on this vitally important proposal.

"The £5.2 million Councillor Peters referred to is intended to cover the overall set up costs for the new organisation, should transfer go ahead, not the cost of the consultation. The cost of the consultation is far less than this, as we have said before. And these costs will be paid for by the Assembly Government, not the taxpayers of Neath Port Talbot."

The council agreed last year to hand over its homes to a tenant-owned organisation, as long as tenants support the idea. It says the transfer is the only way to meet tough new housing standards, because the new organisation could get money the council does not receive.