COUNCIL tenants in Teesdale have voted overwhelmingly to transfer their council houses.

In the highest voter turn-out in the region for a housing transfer ballot, almost 90 per cent of residents voted in favour of transferring their houses to a new housing association.

The move has been welcomed by council bosses and tenants' representatives, who say it will be in the best interest of the tenants.

Of the 1,037 eligible tenants, 80.5 per cent returned their papers, which was the highest turnout in the Government Office North-East area.

There were 98 votes against the transfer and 733 people voted in favour.

The 88.2 per cent of tenants who voted in favour, made it the sixth highest positive ballot of the 430 that have taken place around the country.

Jan Wilkinson, chairman of the Teesdale Tenants Forum, said: "There was nothing wrong with what there was before, but we have got to move into the 21st Century and this will do that.

"We now will have a constitution, which means they have to deliver by law what's in that constitution."

The council houses will be transferred to the Teesdale Housing Association, which will work with Endeavour Housing Association under the umbrella organisation North Star Housing Group.

Ms Wilkinson said that 65 per cent of tenants were elderly and initiatives such as a HandyVan scheme, which carries out minor jobs for free for elderly and disabled people, were unique and were what made the proposition attractive to tenants.

The housing association will also be able to access funds unavailable to the council to enable it to bring the houses up to National Homes Standards. Last week, Prime Minster Tony Blair said his constituents had made the wrong decision when they rejected a transfer of council houses in Sedgefield.

Teesdale's head of housing, Peter Slack, said he felt the reason the Teesdale ballot was successful was because tenants had been involved throughout the process.