20 October 2006
Twenty-four councils have won places on the government's next two-year programme for transferring homes to registered social landlords.
Places are being held open for a further 14 authorities while the Department for Communities and Local Government takes a closer look at their plans.
The list, announced on October 18, represents a final opportunity for many councils to bring properties up to the decent homes standard by 2010.
If all the transfers go ahead following ballots of tenants, 184,000 homes will switch to the RSL sector.
Sarah Webb, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: 'Given that we were down to the last 100 or so local authorities to carry out option appraisals, I'm quite surprised that so many have come up with stock transfer as an option.'
Among councils hoping to transfer their homes to an RSL are Brighton & Hove, Salisbury and Watford. Sheffield and Lewisham are planning to transfer part of their stock.
Sixteen councils will discover soon whether they can achieve the decent homes target through an arm's-length management organisation. But that still leaves large urban authorities such as Birmingham and Liverpool, along with some London boroughs, without definite plans.
PFoct2006
