COUNCIL tenants are being urged to vote against proposals by their local authority to transfer its housing stock.

The TUC and Unison have called a public meeting to discuss the future of Sedgefield Borough Council's housing stock, on Tuesday night, in Spennymoor Town Hall, at 6pm.

The unions are urging residents to say "no" to what they say is privatisation of council housing. The meeting comes after the borough council launched a consultation exercise to determine the future of its homes.

Earlier this year, the council decided to pursue the stock transfer option out of three choices.

This would mean it would transfer its 9,200 houses to a housing association, but it has maintained that this will not happen without the approval of tenants.

But in a leaflet sent out to tenants, the TUC and Unison are urging people to stick with the council.

The leaflet states: "Sedgefield Borough Council can afford to meet the decent homes standard out of its own resources without needing to transfer its stock at all.

"The council's own survey has shown that 96 per cent of tenants want to stay with the council.''

The leaflet also gives examples of other districts that have opted to stay with their local authorities.

"In Darlington, the council realised how deeply unpopular transfer was among its tenants and has just chosen to keep its own stock and use prudential borrowing to raise the extra money needed for improvements."

Last week, Sedgefield Borough Council announced that it was looking for the opinion of its tenants about stock transfer.

Leader Councillor Bob Fleming said: "This is the first stage of an extensive consultation process. We are sure that our tenants will be able to see the benefits and that they will view the transfer as a very positive move for the borough as a whole."

A spokesperson for the borough council said yesterday: "Evidently the final decision has got to be with the tenants and we will make sure they will have the last say about what happens to their homes."