Gedling tenants vote yes » Housing » 24dash.com

Tenants of Gedling Borough Council in Nottinghamshire have voted overwhelmingly to transfer to new landlord Gedling Homes.

Gedling Council's Cabinet member for Housing, Councillor Carol Pepper announced the result today at the Civic Centre in Arnold. Just over 78% of tenants voted yes in the ballot conducted by the independent Electoral Reform Ballot Services. The turnout was almost 65%.

Now the 3500 homes owned by the Council will formally transfer in early November to Gedling Homes, a subsidiary of New Charter.

Gedling Homes is a new housing association set up by Gedling Borough Council and the New Charter Housing Trust Group. New Charter was selected sixteen months ago, and has worked with the Council since then to present an offer to Gedling’s tenants. Problems with the original stock condition survey meant the transfer moved to a negative value. New Charter was able to win the support of government to provide gap funding to allow the transfer proposal to be put to tenants.

Group Chief Executive Ian Munro was delighted with the verdict of tenants. “The Council has provided a good service to its tenants, but this could not be sustained by retaining its stock. The Council has been clear to its tenants what a transfer could achieve, and this gives us a great start.

"Transfer will bring homes up to the Gedling Tenants Standard, open up new opportunities for service improvements and provide more new affordable homes in this area. Our tenants in Greater Manchester have placed us at the top of the league table of large English landlords. So we are confident we can help a local transformation through Gedling Homes.”

The Board of Gedling Homes has tenants, Councillors and Independent experts in equal numbers. New Charter will provide the financial and constitutional support of a successful group structure.

www.newcharter.co.uk