Council tenants vote "no"

[crashbandicoot1979]

Just heard that 59% of Highland Council tenants have voted no to the transfer. Must admit, it was the outcome I was excpecting.

[frank ward]

Glorious victory against privatisation:

Highland tenants vote"no" in housing transfer ballot (22/11/06)
Tenants of The Highland Council have voted “no” to the transfer of council houses to Highland Housing Association.

The ballot was run by Electoral Reform Services, an independent body that oversees ballots and elections in the UK.

QUESTION

Are you in favour of the Council’s proposal to transfer the ownership and management of its housing to Highland Housing Association?

Total number of eligible tenants 16,403
Total number of ballot papers received 10,179
Overall rate of participation 62%
Total number of spoilt/blank ballot papers 22
Therefore, total number of valid votes counted 10,157

Result

Number voting YES 4,097 (40.3% of the valid vote)

Number voting NO 6,060 (59.7% of the valid vote)


TOTAL 10,157 (100% of the valid vote)

[cuddlepop]

Well this is going to be fun.What happens to the money they've spent already?:confused
Cant say I'm suprised at the vote.

[crashbandicoot1979]

Well this is going to be fun.What happens to the money they've spent already?:confused
Cant say I'm suprised at the vote.

Maybe they'll increase council tax even higher to compensate :lol:

[cuddlepop]

Does anyone know how Inverclyde tennents voted?
Scottish Executive are going to have to rethink there whole council housing policy now.

[crashbandicoot1979]

Think the Inverclyde vote has a week to run yet before the outcome is announced.

[frank ward]

Cuddlepop: The Inverclyde result will be a few days away. Regardless of the result, the stock transfer policy is now effectively sunk in Scotland. You should see the grin on my face!
As for the £millions wasted to date[I suggest up to £2.5million], that will eventualy be paid by income/general tax via the UK Treasury. Fortunately the No vote will stop further waste of about £3million which would have been used to arrange private bank loans for the new company.

Crash: Housing debt is funded entirely through rents, it has no negative impact on Council tax.
Quite the opposite - rents subsidise several council dapartments.
The complicated and expensive transfer of the housing department will not proceed, saving further millions of taxpayers money. The Housing Department is financed by rent income.

I have asked Bill Fernie to personally investigate the apparent removal of over £1million from the supposedly 'ring fenced' tenants rents to pay for the COP programme. He has agreed to investigate, the results will be published in due course. If it is repaid, and not in the Cayman Islands, there will be extra money available for repairs next year.

[dozy]

They say that Housing Association would be better than the council well get this one .
I was speaking to a one Associations directors about heating and the environment .I asked why were they fitting electric heating be it storage or total .The reply was an eye opener ,they said that they knew it was alot more expensive to run but it was GREEN as it allowed tenants to buy electricity from Windturbines and they were told it was very green .....

[Venture]

Interesting part of this debate is the fact that CAITHNESS voted for the transfer.

[cuddlepop]

Where did you get the breakdown for votes Venture?:)

[frank ward]

The area results are here:

http://www.highland.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/9040D3D1-3B9A-427F-B1AD-224AC95B1D9B/0/areaballotresult.pdf

Caithness voted Yes for transfer 690, No 667 - just 23 votes.

HAST did little campaigning in Caithness, we never had the local resources for streetstalls etc. where real questions and answers can be discussed face-to-face. Unfortunately the weather conspired to thwart us when we did have people available.
The local papers published very few of our letters or press releases, and as you know this website owner was also pro-transfer and published zero of HAST press releases.

With our donations of under £900 against the pro-transfer budget of £200,000 and hundreds of man-hours by council staff peddling the council's twaddle, I think we did very well.

When I was delivering leaflets in Castletown and Halkirk I was encouraged by the reaction of tenants who were relieved to see literature of a different bent from the heaps of glossy promises from the company.

We realised we were winning when, a week into the ballot, leaked memos revealed that the desparate Minister was vainly exhorting his Labour Party minions to mobilise the Yes vote.
[Another press notice this website ignored]

The result, when it came, was a decisive 60/40 majority against privatisation, and I was a very happy bunny indeed !

This is just as well, because I have since discovered alarming financial details within the unpublished HHA Board minutes. This info has been given to this website but it seems will not be published. Maybe its Yesterday's news.

Now I expect to see our councillors and other politicians get off their backsides and press publicly and privately for the housing debt to be written off and for investment in our housing. The money is there for companies, so why not for councils?

Unfortunately they lack the political will.

http://www.hast2006.org.uk/