HOME FRONT: Jenni Marrow is fighting the council's housing transfer plans.

Residents hit out at city homes transfer 'disgrace'
Gareth Edwards
Resedents opposed to plans to have every council home taken over by ahousing association are to mount a protest against the controversial proposals. They have criticised a business plan for the proposed transfer of Edinburgh's 23,000 council houses for a "serious lack of financial detail".
Campaigners have also accused the council of rushing through a ballot of residents which will decide whether the scheme can go ahead. They say the suggested ballot date in November is too soon to allow tenants to look at the proposals properly.

Now members of Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer (East) are planning to protest outside the City Chambers on Thursday, ahead of a council meeting expected to rubber-stamp the proposals.

Jenni Marrow, 59, a member of East and a resident of Pennywell Court, said: "The problem with the business plan is the lack of financial details, including the cost of the demolition, the cost of the new development, and how the housing association will meet those. This is privatisation of the council houses and while rent may be tied to inflation for five years, there is nothing to stop it going up after that, or to stop service charges being increased.

"It is a disgrace that the Scottish Executive are saying people are not entitled to these improvements unless they hand over control to a private company, and it seems clear the council is rushing to hold this ballot before people understand the real consequences of the transfer."
Tenants will make the final decision on the proposed housing stock transfer, which the council says will unlock more than £2 billion of funding for the city over the next ten years.

If it goes ahead, 4000 of the city's most run-down houses will be demolished and thousands more renovated and refurbished.

Run-down high-rise flats in Gracemount and North Sighthill, Leith's once notorious Fort flats, 1960s maisonettes in Pennywell and tenement homes in Royston and Wardieburn will all be flattened if the plans are approved.

But East campaigners say that after looking at the business plan they are more concerned than ever that council tenants are being "bribed" to give up their rights to affordable social housing. Under the plans, the council's crippling £310 million housing debt would be written off by the Treasury, with increased funding provided to build new houses and provide extensive renovation to others.

But East campaigners have asked why the Executive and the Treasury cannot provide this funding without handing over control of its housing stock.
And they do not believe promises to keep rent at inflation for the full 30 years of the business plan will be kept, and fear rent could even go up within the first five years despite a legal agreement with the council preventing this from happening.
They believe that service charges will be increased, allowing the housing association to effectively put up rent while sticking to their agreement, something the council's housing department insisted would not happen.

East member Luke Henderson, 36, from Polwarth Crescent, said the City Chambers protest was designed to make sure councillors were aware of the opposition.
He said: "We have seen from other stock transfers that promises on rent and improvements have not been met, and the speed with which the council want to press ahead with this ballot is a very serious concern.

"There will certainly be a lobby group outside the meeting to get our point across."
Mark Turley, the council's director of housing, said: "Delivering long term affordable rents to tenants is what this is about. The business plan covers 30 years and is based on inflation-only rent increases during that whole period. This is legally guaranteed for the first five years after transfer. This is a real win-win for our tenants and the only way to deliver these improvements while still keeping rents affordable.
"We are confident that this is a robust business plan and demonstrates its ability to finance the delivery of all the key promises."