Door to door consultation with tenants over Housing Transfer

The Highland Council is to go door knocking at the homes of 14,500 tenants soon to advise them of the impending ballot on housing transfer, which will ask them to vote on transferring council houses to the not-for-profit organisation, Highland Housing Association.

The consultation and communication with tenants will take place between 19 June and 14 July. It is proposed that visits will take place between 9.00am – 8.00pm, Monday to Saturday. No visits will take place on a Sunday. In advance, tenants will get a letter advising them about the purpose of the visits, asking for their cooperation and giving contact details of our staff.

This will be a significant undertaking given the geography of the Highlands, which extends to 10,000 sq miles. However, the Council believes the effort is worthwhile to secure a strong response to the secret postal ballot, which will take place in October.

At the door, Council staff will:-

If tenants are not at home, a note with an information leaflet will be left asking tenants to make contact if they would like to discuss the proposals with a housing officer and/or a further home visit to be made.

The feedback will be used by Highland Housing Association to finalise their Business Plan proposals which will feature in the Stage 1 Formal Offer document to tenants.

The door knocking will be funded by Scottish Executive grant.

Note: The Highland Council is proposing to transfer its housing to the Highland Housing Association. The transfer will only take place if the majority of tenants voting in the ballot support the move.
By transferring housing to HHA, the Scottish Executive will pay off the Council’s entire housing debt of £160 million. 41p in every pound is currently being spent on paying off debt. The Association will not have the same debt as the Council it will therefore have more money and will be able to pay for improvements to homes that the Council could not afford. It will also be able to improve services while also guaranteeing to keep rents affordable.
The transfer proposals also include an injection of £50 million over the next five years which will permit the provision of 1,000 rented and low cost homes across the Highlands.