A lot of people have lived in council property all of their lives and they are worried that they are going to have a new landlord

Sheila Wilson, Sunderland tenant

Currently, Glasgow City Council has a �900m debt which it cannot clear. For every �1 received in rent, 40p services the debt.

The UK Government agreed to wipe out the debt, provided tenants endorsed the transfer to a single housing association.

GHA has promised to carry out repairs worth �1.8bn over 10 years and begin demolishing as many as 11,000 properties to transform dilapidated stock.

Council housing tenants in Sunderland and Coventry both voted in favour of respective transfer - but appear at odds over the merits.

'Fully modernised'

In Sunderland, 36,000 properties were transferred to the Sunderland Housing Group - the biggest transfer in the UK to date.

Barry Docherty, a key advisor to tenants 12 months ago, said he believed they were happy with the outcome.

"They had a choice to make in staying with the council and have a rent increase of on average �4 a week without the home being modernised or being improved," Mr Docherty said.

"Or, if they voted for the transfer they could have their homes fully modernised, the repair service improved and an average �1.20 increase.

Tenants in Sunderland were given a contract

"And that is in fact what has happened."

Tenant Sheila Wilson said she voted 'yes' because she felt it would modernise the housing.

"This is 2002 and we have got to get up and progress. We can't stick with the ideas of the 1940s and 50s.

"A lot of people have lived in council property all of their lives and they are worried that they are going to have a new landlord.

"But it is just a housing association."

Tenants' expectations

Each tenant was given an individual contract by Sunderland Housing and can sue if contractual agreements are not honoured.

The housing group's Peter Walls said the move had given a degree of direct accountability that was missing under local authority control.

However, in Coventry, some people believe the changes that have been made since a 'yes' vote transferred 20,000 homes 15 months ago, are for the worse.

The Coventry transfer has courted controversy

Andy McGeechan, of the Hillfield Tenants' Group, said the transfer had not yielded the expected benefits.

The Whitefriars Housing Group took over the stock, but it is not without its critics.

He said: "People's expectations were for renovations, but what seems to be happening is that Whitefriars has 12 blocks.

"But the way their business plan stacks up appears to say they can only have nine blocks - three have got to go.

'Setting the rules'

"They appear to be immovable on that. From our point of view it's a case of who they will move to make sure their business plan stacks up.

"It's a personal versus business issue."

Cllr David Nellist said rents in Coventry have gone up by 20% since the transfer and evictions by 45%.

The problem tenants faced was that the government did not want to invest in public services, he said.

"We used to have public housing under public control, financed by public money - but now it is out in the market place and the banks are setting the rules."