TENANTS are to be balloted on the future management of their homes.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council hopes to transfer the management of 12,000 council homes in the borough to a new not-for-profit company able to access money and grants for a repair scheme that is unavailable to the council under current legislation.

The council undertook its biggest ever consultation exercise over the past six weeks to inform tenants of the proposals and to see if there was enough support for the idea to proceed with a formal ballot.

Council staff sent out letters, made home visits, held public meetings, put up a mobile exhibition centre, put displays in its district offices, made a short video and set up a freephone advice line to tell residents about the proposals.

It wanted to make sure as many tenants as possible were fully informed and had all their questions answered.

The tenants had many questions, mostly concerned about possible rises in rents and improvements to homes.

The council said the feedback showed that there is support for the switch and it is now expected that a formal secret postal ballot will be carried out by the end of the month.

The authority is hoping for a high voter turn out over the four weeks of the ballot - in other parts of the country where similar schemes have been carried out, turn out has been around 70 per cent.

Iain Sim, director of housing, said: "We believe we have carried out a very comprehensive consultation exercise and received clear and conclusive support for the transfer.

"Tenants will receive the latest in a series of newsletters before the ballot begins and the main message is going to be: Use Your Vote."