At a special meeting of council last night (Thursday 18th February), members debated whether Caerphilly county borough council should retain its housing stock or transfer it to a Registered Social Landlord to be managed in the future.
The council owns around 11,000 properties across the county borough and major investment is needed to ensure that the stock meets the requirements of the Wales Housing Quality Standard by 2015.
After a long debate, with many contributions from members on both sides of the chamber, a vote was taken and the council agreed to transfer its stock to a Registered Social Landlord. This will firstly involve a ballot of council tenants and approval from the Welsh Assembly Government.
As part of the debate, the leader of council, Cllr Lindsay Whittle (pictured), made an impassioned appeal to fellow councillors urging them to allow local tenants to have their say about the future of the council’s housing stock.
“I’ve had many sleepless nights agonising over the options before us,” said Cllr Whittle, “In an ideal world we would all want to retain control of our housing stock, but we must be realistic and look at the financial implications, especially in light of the budget pressures we will be facing over the next few years.”
“I believe that the best way forward is to give our tenants the power to choose. These are the people who live in the properties, so it must be up to them to decide what is best for their future,” he added.
Major investment is needed to achieve this and it was explained that the financial implications for the council could be dire if it retained the stock and was not able to meet the quality standard.
“We sometimes need to make tough decisions that go against our principles, but I’m confident that this is the right decision and I truly believe that this option will deliver the best outcome for our tenants in the future,” added Cllr Whittle.
