The results of the stock transfer ballot were published today

Overall Total number of votes for YES: 1984 (43% of valid vote)
Overall Total number of votes for NO: 2678 (57% of valid vote)

Turnout: 61%

This rejection of the proposed stock transfer comes despite the massive amount of money spent by the Council and Arena to try and convince tenants to change landlord. The ‘no’ campaign struggled with very little resources in comparison and yet still managed to get the message out.

It is for the Council to come back with a housing budget that can meet the aspirations of the tenants. We know that it can be done, because the Labour group put forward such a budget at the start of this year. We’ve always argued that the situation in West Lancs is different to other councils because we don’t have the debt that other councils have, for whom stock transfer has meant the debt being cleared.

The campaign locally will hopefully move on to the fourth option which didn’t figure in our campaign locally because we could set a budget without resorting to the extra cash. However, if a fairer way of funding council housing could be introduced, as proposed in the fourth option, then the properties locally could be transformed.

In the meantime, it’s been a good day for tenant participation and for all those who worked hard to get out the “no” message.

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I notice that the defend council housing link above doesn’t work – instead this is a link to the “support4councilhousing” site with the MP’s report on the fourth option.