Questions are being asked about plans to transfer a town's council housing stock to a non-profit housing organisation.

Middlesbrough Council proposed handing over all its 13,000 council houses to Erimus Housing.

But two months after Erimus mounted a roadshow to win approval of tenants, Middlesbrough Council is now carrying out a detailed analysis of the cost of transferring its council houses to the organisation.

Council chief executive Brian Dinsdale said there would be no consultation leading to a ballot of tenants on the transfer until the council was "completely satisfied" that the deal would benefit the whole town and not have a negative impact on other council services.

Mr Dinsdale said: "We are in favour of transfer as we have concluded that it is the most effective way of bringing homes up to a better standard.

"However, there are still many complex issues to be resolved, not least the impact of transfer on the partnership with HBS (the council's private sector partners), through which many support services for housing are provided.

"It is clear that these must be resolved before we can go ahead with the next, critical stage of the process, which is formally consulting the tenants about the housing transfer proposal and then asking the tenants in a ballot whether they are in favour of transfer.

"It is unlikely that the ballot will take place this year."

When it first announced the idea of handing over its council estates, Middlesbrough Council said the transfer to Erimus, managed by a board of tenants, councillors and independent board members, was the only way forward.

Officers said the local authority did not have the £148m needed to upgrade its houses during the next ten years, a bill which could increase to £481m in the next 30 years.

Councillor Bob Brady, chairman of the shadow board, said in April: "The sole reason we are advocating transfer is that it will mean better quality housing and a better quality of life for our council tenants."