| AdminHistory | With a definitive date for the effective Wind-Up of the Corporation set for December 1996, by 1994 the Corporation's strategy for the disposal of its housing stock was well under way.
A key objective of the Scottish Office was to achieve maximum diversification of tenure in local authority housing. As a result, when deciding the future of Corporation housing stock, a ballot was to be held so that tenants could vote on which landlord their housing would pass to. Livingston was divided in to ten areas. In each of the ten areas the newly formed West Lothian Council was to be entered on the ballot paper, and would contest the ballot against a singular housing association chosen from a list of applicants by the Corporation.
The aims of stock transfer were:
1) To ensure new landlords provided a service at least equal to what the Corporation had provided.
2) To safeguard existing tenants rights, and Right to Buy, as required by current legislation
3) To provide a landlord who was acceptable to tenants.
4) To achieve value for money.
The Corporation was to choose which prospective landlord would be entered on to the ballot paper via a tendering process that began in March 1995, with the landlords' bids going through a series of revisions until December 1995. The Board of the Corporation then evaluated bids and passed its recommendations to the Secretary of State for Scotland whose approval was required. The approved landlords to be entered on the bidding papers were Almond Housing Association (formed from staff previously employed by the Corporation), Edinvar Housing Association, Castle Rock Livingston Housing Association, and Bield Housing Association.
The postal ballot took place between May and June 1996, in which 83.8% of eligible tenants voted.
In final result West Lothian Council won seven of the ten ballot areas. Craigshill and Howden areas voted for Almond Housing Association, whilst the sheltered housing tenants voted for Bield Housing Association.
The closest result was in Ladywell, where West Lothian Council received 50.2% of the vote, compared to Almond Housing association, who received 49.8% of the vote
There were two issues which emerged during the running of the ballot. The first of which was that West Lothian Council issued a leaflet promising work in the next 5 years to improve area, but without specifying any details. The second issue involved the Livingston Federation of Tenants who, by the terms of their funding agreement with the Corporation, were to remain impartial. During the ballot the Federation issued leaflets explicitly supporting West Lothian Council's bid. West Lothian Council was the only organisation that had promised funding to Federation after the Wind-Up of the Corporation.
The Corporation's consultants during the process, Touche Ross, found that neither issue affected the ballot, and that the result should be presented to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Formal transfer of housing stock took place in October 1996. |
| ScopeandContent | 7 subseries comprising:
1. All papers relating to the strategy for the running of the housing ballot and disposal of housing stock, 1992-1996.
2. Papers created by the consultants, Touche Ross, appointed during the Wind-Up process to provide guidance, 1995-1996.
3. Ballot Area Information Packs and maps, created to provide information on the ballot areas so that prospective landlords would have a fair idea of what they were bidding on, 1983-1996.
4. Stock condition surveys, prepared by Savill's of London on the condition of Corporation's housing stock, 1995.
5. Stock bids - bids presented to the Corporation for the housing stock, 1995-1996.
6. Tenders for the position of Tenant Advisor during Wind-Up process, 1995.
7. Housing Ballot Publicity, leaflets, newsletters and news releases, 1994-1996. |