I highlighted in my first Transfer Notes the absurd allegations all too often made by opponents of transfer (30 May, page 12). It is quite ridiculous that, after well over 100 large-scale voluntary transfers, there can still be any doubt about the impact on tenants’ rights. Gone are the legalistic agonies over “contracting into” statutory rights, yet agitprop nonsense persists – and creates, as intended, uncertainty and fear.

The obvious way of providing reassurance is to have a standard guide to tenants’ post-transfer rights. This of course is in the consultation documents already, but the text is all too easily tarred with the Defend Council Housing brush. It doesn’t matter that it’s appeared in countless documents approved by the (now) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, or indeed that some of the text is actually prescribed by ODPM guidance. It is simply condemned by opponents as misleading or plain wrong – without any attempt to explain exactly how.

Let’s cut across all this and persuade ODPM to endorse some basic factual statements. They could take the form of a free-standing booklet – with “ODPM approved” stamped clearly on the front cover.

The government has made plain its distaste for such things – but we have got to have a real go. Resistance can only be psychological, not constitutional.