Rob Shorrock

Last Thursday the council scampered around the uniquicoval outcome of the tenants stock transfer ballot. As a reminder and also beccause I like to see the figure in front of me, tenants voted nearly 3 to 1 to keep their homes with the council.

What was interesting about the meeting was that the Tories and their fellow travellers appeared to have been let of the leash. They went for us in a way that we had not witnessed in of the previous meetings on the topic working to the ambiguous tactic that attack is the best form of defence.

Their defence strategy was that the Labour government made them do it!

This is partly true; the government has indeed forced councils to go through an appraisal of their housing stock to examine ways in which it could be delivered in the future and to ensure that decent homes standard are met. Every option needs to be considered except the one which allows the council to invest all rents and right to buy receipts in the stock - the fourth option.

However, what the govenment doesn't make you do is pick stock transfer- well not quite. Certainly, there is a lot of pressure to do it but the whole point of being democrats is to resist the demands of governments that make little or no sense at all. Stock transfer is a case in point.

There is little point in the Tories squealing about it now. Unless of course what they are really trying to do is divert attention from their own culpability in the saga. What they did was vote down the line for stock transfer every time the issue was brought to a DSP or council meeting. Not once in any of these meetings did they advocate lobbying the government for the 4th option.

The report they brought to the council meeting made an empty, last gasp gesture to ask the government to give them back the 40% we pay in enta into the central pool. They refused to back our strong amendment to affiliate to the association for councils with retained housing and DCH, campaigns which are at the forefront of the option.

They also refused to back our amendment calling for an investigation into the stock option process and the expenditure of £600 k on a glossy pro transfer PR campaign could actually lead to an increase in the no vote. The amendment also wanted the investigation to èxamine the impact on officer and tenant relationships.

So, at the end of the meeting the Tory controlled administration decided to do nothing but try and bury the issue.

The election has well and truly started!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device