THE ownership of Bolton’s council houses will be transferred to a new, independent Bolton at Home Councillors have voted to formally approve the stock transfer of all 18,500 properties despite almost a quarter of tenants voting “no” to the plans.

A total of 9,205 tenants voted in the favour of the transfer.

Cllr Nick Peel is executive member for housing, neighbourhood and regulations.

He said: “To those who voted ‘yes’, thank you for putting your support behind the transfer. But perhaps more importantly to those 24 per cent who voted ‘no’, it is important that we take you with us.

“Bolton at Home and the council must understand their concerns and must strive to address them in the coming years.”

He added: “I hope they too can understand the reason we have made this decision and the hard journey that we have made in order to secure the very best homes for our tenants.” work is under way on finalising the legal agreements between the authority and Bolton at Home, including a development agreement about the proposed improvement works.

Cllr Peel said the strong relationship between the two organisations would continue and Bolton at Home “will submit to regular, quarterly scrutiny of its overall performance”.

He said £124 million would be invested in the houses in the first five years.

Cllr Peel added that the council faced a shortfall of up to £19 million per year, which would have resulted in 1,000 houses becoming “non decent” each year.

He said: “The much needed environmental improvements on our estates that tenants have been crying out for — for years — will become a reality.”

It is proposed the transfer takes effect from Monday, March 28, with the housing debt of £288 million being written off by the government on March 31.

Cllr Roger Hayes said: “It was the only way forward. It is not the answer to everyone’s problems.”

Cllr John Walsh added: “It is a pragmatic solution to a hugely costly problem.”