Stock transfer wins the day by seven votes

4 Aug 05
Council tenants in east London have voted by just seven votes to transfer their homes to a registered social landlord.

05 August 2005

Council tenants in east London have voted by just seven votes to transfer their homes to a registered social landlord.

Anti-transfer campaigners have demanded an inquiry following the result in the Parkside area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is expected to lead to more than 2,000 homes being taken over by Old Ford Housing Association.

Tower Hamlets is offering its tenants the opportunity to transfer their homes to RSLs on an estate-by-estate basis so that it can raise money to meet the decent homes standard. Three transfers have already been completed.

But the narrow result in Parkside has angered the group Tower Hamlets Against Transfer of Council Housing (Thatch), which claims that some tenants did not receive ballot papers in time. 'We would like an inquiry into the running of the campaign and also a re-run of the ballot,' said its spokesman, Barry Blinko.

Just 46% of tenants took part in the ballot. A total of 413 tenants supported the proposal, with 406 voting against.

Tower Hamlets Council has rejected Thatch's claims and calls for an inquiry, saying the result is sufficient for it to seek consent from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

A spokesman for Parkside Estates Resident Steering Group said it had worked with the council and Old Ford to secure a result that means £42.8m will be spent on improving the homes.

Tenants in Lambeth, meanwhile, have backed plans to raise £105m through the Private Finance Initiative to modernise homes on the Myatts Field estate, as well as build 300 new properties and community facilities.

Fifty-seven per cent supported the proposal in a ballot that closed on August 2.

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