TRADE unionists have stepped up their fight against plans to transfer Bolton’s council housing stock.

They have organised a public meeting to discuss what they say are the pitfalls of the proposed transfer.

The Future of Housing in Bolton meeting, which has been set up by Unison and the Bolton Trades Union Council, will take place at the end of March.

Speakers will include Eileen Short from the Defend Council Housing campaign, former Chorley councillor Andy Birchall, who led the campaign against stock transfer in Chorley, and Cllr Noel Spencer, chairman of Bolton At Home.

Martin Challender, communications secretary for the Unison Bolton Metro branch, said full details of the meeting would be revealed within the next few days.

He said: “We want it to be a balanced meeting which is why we have invited Cllr Spencer along. It is about the future of housing in the borough but we will be focusing on the stock transfer and will be giving people the chance to hear both sides of the story.”

Bolton Council is holding a series of information roadshows over the next month, aimed at giving council housing tenants the chance to learn about the stock transfer, which, subject to the results of a tenant ballot, will see the borough’s 18,200-strong housing stock transferred to a newly-remodelled Bolton At Home. The move is necessary to ensure the current level of investment in improvements and maintenance — around £25 million per year — can continue.

Without the stock transfer, which will see the Government cancel millions of pounds worth of historic housing debt, 1,000 homes per year will fall below the national decent homes standard.

Defend Council Housing campaigners have spent more than a decade fighting against stock transfers, concentrating their efforts on getting the Government to provide direct investment in properties instead.

andrew.greaves@thebolton news.co.uk