COUNCIL chiefs have given the thumbs-up to a massive transfer of 6,900 local authority homes to a housing trust.

Last year, more than three-quarters of tenants voted in favour of the scheme and now council chiefs have rubber stamped the proposal.

The transfer will mean tenants' homes will benefit from £141m of repairs and improvements in the first decade.

They will be administered by Halton Housing Trust - an independent, not-for-profit housing association set up with the help of the council.

A survey showed in 2004 that council homes in Halton need £329m spent on them over the next 30 years to bring them up to standard and to maintain and improve them in the future.

However, the council does not have the cash and strict Government rules prevent local authorities from borrowing all the money needed to carry out the work.

But the trust will be able to borrow the money and pay it back over 30 years through revenue from rents.

Council leader Cllr Tony McDermott said: 'It is just under a year since tenants balloted 78% in favour of transfer and since then the details of transfer have occupied huge amounts of time and effort by members, officers and tenants.

'It is an indicator of the care taken in the handover that only one objection was received from all of the published transfer notices.'

Tenants will have more say about the future of their homes and how the housing service is run.

Five tenants, five council representatives and five independents, chosen for their skills and experience, will make up a management board at the trust.

None of the board members will be paid and there will be no shareholders or dividends paid. This means that any surplus cash will be ploughed back into homes and the housing service.

Tenants rights and entitlements will be protected and tenants will still have the right to buy their own homes.