The vote to transfer the running of 9,000 council properties from the local authority to the Shoreline Housing Partnership was carried by two to one.

The move should generate an extra �50m to pay for badly-needed improvements to the housing stock.

North East Lincolnshire Council had been campaigning for a "yes" vote.

It argued that its financial problems would have become even deeper had the vote gone against it.

But the move to transfer the homes was opposed by some trade unions and the Labour MP for Great Grimsby, Austin Mitchell.