Merton Council embroiled in housing row (From Your Local Guardian)

Merton Council embroiled in housing row

8:10am Thursday 26th February 2009 in Search By Ben Thompson

Council house tenants are being bullied and coerced into passing their homes out of the hands of Merton Council, a national campaign group has claimed.

The local authority is proposing residents vote in favour of allowing a housing association to take ownership and control of their homes on the promise of a £129m investment over the next decade.

But the Defend Council Housing campaign has criticised Merton for presenting a biased argument in the build up to a spring ballot.

And as 60 per cent of the borough’s housing stock falls bellow the Government’s decent homes standard, some tenants have said their properties are being neglected to force the result of a vote this spring.

One resident contacted the Wimbledon Guardian with a letter from a council officer. It said work to repair a hole in the roof of the Phipps Bridge estate would not be repaired unless there was a “positive outcome” in the ballot.

Alan Walter, chairman of the Defend Council Housing campaign, said: “Often local authorities will spend between £500,000 and £1m on promoting its argument with no need to promote a balanced debate. It’s nothing short of bullying.

“Council housing is far from perfect but having a secure tenancy is stronger in law than any other tenancy agreement and you lose that under a social landlord.

“People need a landlord they can hold to account.”

But the cash-strapped council said it is being stripped of resources to carry out adequate maintenance work as 35 per cent of rental income has to be ploughed back to central Government, costing the borough £9m.

Head of housing Jo Williams denied it was bullying, adding if tenants do not vote in favour of the transfer, 80 per cent of the borough’s homes will fall below the decent standard in five years.

She added: “If there were to be a no vote we would have to decide what services we could continue to run, we would have to reduce staff, and the level of maintenance and repair work, which people already complain about, would be even less.

“I do believe that this is a fantastic deal for residents and there will be just as much accountability with a housing association as there currently is with the council.”

All material published by the council prior to the vote has to be vetted by a tenant’s advisory service. More than 50 per cent of residents need to vote in favour of the stock transfer for it to be accepted.