What we want: The Fourth Option – direct investment to improve existing and build new council housing.

The Fourth Option is an alternative to the government’s three privatisation options of:

Stock transfer
PFIs (Private Finance Initiatives)
ALMOs (arm's-length management organisations)
PFIs and ALMOs are privatisation in two stages

The Fourth Option could be funded by adopting the following principles:-

Ring fence all the money that belongs to council housing (tenants rents, ‘right to buy’ and other capital receipts) to fund an investment allowance as first discussed in the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers own blue skies review of housing finance. (The Way Forward for Housing Capital Finance, August 2003)

Provide a level playing field on debt so that authorities, where tenants decide to keep the council as their landlord, get debt written-off or taken over on the same terms as those who sell their homes.
Set Management and Maintenance Allowances (M&Ms) and Major Repair Allowances (MRAs) at a level that supports the true costs.

Respect tenant’s choice and stop wasting vast sums of public money on one-sided expensive PR campaigns promoting privatisation.

Encourage best practice by funding a genuinely independent tenant’s movement in each authority.
Establish a Continuous Improvement Task Force in order to utilise expertise from authorities with a good track record so they can offer assistance to those authorities who need help with improving particular services.