Tenants urged to make use of vote
Thursday, 13th September 2001.
A PLEA has gone out to tenants in Haverhill to use their vote in the forthcoming ballot over whether their homes should be transferred to a new trust.
Phillip French, the only Haverhill member of St Edmundsbury Borough Council who is a council house tenant himself, hopes to see a reversal of the apathy which has greeted the process so far.
Councillors agreed last week to go ahead with a formal ballot on the plan to transfer management of more than 6,000 homes to the Havebury Housing Partnership.
The transfer will only go ahead if a majority of tenants vote in favour next month.
Very few people turned up for meetings organised in the town to discuss the transfer and Coun French said the lack of participation reflected “ridiculously low turnouts” in council and general elections.
Coun French said he was reluctantly in favour of the transfer because the £50 million pledged for repairs and maintenance by the new trust would not be available to the council.
St Edmundsbury would lose £1.6 million of its rent income to the government if it kept the homes, plus £9 million of the £17 million rent total would continue to pay for housing benefit.
If the transfer went ahead the government would pay this.
“It sickens me to have to go down this road, but I think the head has got to rule the heart and I cannot really see any other option.
“I would say to tenants it is the only way to get the repairs and refurbishment we need done. If we stay with the borough council they are going to be paying more and getting less for it.
“I would plead with everyone to use their vote, it is about the future of ta their homes and how they are managed.
“It is a free, postal vote, all they have got to do is mark the appropriate box and post it.”
Phillip French, the only Haverhill member of St Edmundsbury Borough Council who is a council house tenant himself, hopes to see a reversal of the apathy which has greeted the process so far.
Councillors agreed last week to go ahead with a formal ballot on the plan to transfer management of more than 6,000 homes to the Havebury Housing Partnership.
The transfer will only go ahead if a majority of tenants vote in favour next month.
Very few people turned up for meetings organised in the town to discuss the transfer and Coun French said the lack of participation reflected “ridiculously low turnouts” in council and general elections.
Coun French said he was reluctantly in favour of the transfer because the £50 million pledged for repairs and maintenance by the new trust would not be available to the council.
St Edmundsbury would lose £1.6 million of its rent income to the government if it kept the homes, plus £9 million of the £17 million rent total would continue to pay for housing benefit.
If the transfer went ahead the government would pay this.
“It sickens me to have to go down this road, but I think the head has got to rule the heart and I cannot really see any other option.
“I would say to tenants it is the only way to get the repairs and refurbishment we need done. If we stay with the borough council they are going to be paying more and getting less for it.
“I would plead with everyone to use their vote, it is about the future of ta their homes and how they are managed.
“It is a free, postal vote, all they have got to do is mark the appropriate box and post it.”
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