Housing transfer ballot backed
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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