After the surprise ‘no-vote’ in Wrexham recently, the stock transfer debate has been ongoing throughout Wales.

How can council’s give tenants the choice between voting 'yes' or 'no' to stock transfer, when the only realistic option of obtaining the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) is to transfer all the stock?

The prime and current example of Wrexham highlights it perfectly. Nobody in the council really expected a no-vote and even if they had, what could they have done differently?

As the Welsh Assembly have said that they will not be making any more money available for Wrexham to reach the WHQS by 2012, the council are now looking at Prudential borrowing as the only viable alternative. Unfortunately for the tenants, this means paying higher rents for longer periods and not necessarily receiving a better service for their troubles. It does seem that this is the future scenario that should have been put to the Wrexham tenants, instead of telling them that stock transfer is the only option available as they would all get a brand new kitchen. In the face of the strong ‘yes-vote’ from the council and the even stronger ‘no-vote’ from the against stock transfer lobying group, what would you expect tenants to do?

The Wrexham ‘no-vote’ now means that any other council looking at stock transfer, like for instance Denbighshire, will actually be spending some time looking at the possibility of a ‘no-vote’ and what this would mean for tenants and the council alike. This would hopefully mean that they would not be caught ‘red-faced’ after the vote. Of course, Denbighshire is a slightly different kettle of fish really, as the tenants and council alike want a vote on stock transfer.

One thing is for sure though, Wrexham have been the unlucky first in Wales for a no-vote and everyone else is now looking at them to see what answers (if any) they can now come up with. The words ‘guinea pigs’ spring to mind……..

By Brett Sadler