Huge transfer explosion

The landscape of affordable housing in England is set to change dramatically as local authorities prepare to sell off an unprecendented 300,000 homes next year.

The scale of the transfer programme has exploded to such an extent that it could increase total housing association stock by a quarter, according to official figures.

The extent to which New Labour has made the Tory flagship policy its own is laid bare by the 10 Labour authorities among the 25 queueing for the approval of housing minister Nick Raynsford.

And it puts the sector on course to meet the ambitions of former housing minister David Curry, who once said he wanted transfer "at the heart of every local council's housing strategy" and a million homes transferred by 2007 (Housing Today, 30 January 1997).

Curry told Housing Today: "I'm delighted. I have always said we are now witnessing the death of the council house. It is quite clear that municiple properties are becoming the housing of last resort.

"It is my legislation, giving authorities the ability to set up local housing companies, which started this explosion. The seed had been sown under the Conservatives and has given birth under Labour."

A total of 25 authorities have bid to be on the programme for 2000/01, 22 of which are for total stock transfers. Two of these, Coventry and Richmond, have been brought forward from the 1999/00 programme after encountering difficulties.

The others are for small scale, partial transfers. They are Manchester, which wants to sell two overspill estates in Macclesfield totalling 1,128 homes; Lewisham which aims to transfer 2,076 homes in Forest Hill; and Barnsley, where 600 homes in Grimethorpe could go.

Provided no authorities on the list pull out of the programme, and tenants agree, a total of 299,356 homes will switch to registered social landlords - equivalent to the number of transfers that have taken place over the last six years.

The National Housing Federation's head of investment and resources Stephen Duckworth predicted the burgeoning interest in transfer to continue at the same rate. He said: "I'm not surprised that it looks like it's moved to a much higher level than previous years, given the interest that local authorities have been showing.

"From what we hear on the ground the trend is going to continue. But of course, it is left to tenants ballots and the debt situation being sorted out by local authorities."