South Wales Evening Post - 5 September 2006
Peter Black's claim that housing stock transfer will allow tenants "a direct say in the way their homes are managed" is remarkably disingenuous (Have Your Say, August 30). Unlike a commercial company, in which shareholders elect the entire board, tenants in a community mutual will only be able to elect a minority of board members. The tenant members would not be able to amend the constitution or pass resolutions without the support of non-tenants on the board who will clearly have different interests from tenants themselves.
A study at Oxford Brookes University found tenant members of registered social housing boards were "marginalised" and "powerless" in the face of manipulation by senior management. Further, company law would legally prevent tenants on the board from acting as representatives of other tenants.
Mr Black's claim that "voting for a councillor every four years" is somehow not democratically accountable enough is pretty astonishing considering he is up for re-election only every four years.
Mr Black agrees that there is a democratic deficit, but seems to think the solution is privatisation! So much for the "progressive" Liberal Democrats.
Jonny Jones, Swansea Defend Council Housing
