THOUSANDS of council tenants have voted for a non-profit making company to become their landlord.

Sunderland City Council plans to transfer its stock of 38,000 homes to the venture next April, because its cannot afford the backlog of repairs.

The council announced yesterday that 88 per cent of the tenants who responded to a ballot were in favour.

The council is promising that the company, which will be run by an unpaid management board of tenants, councillors and advisors, will be able to raise £302m for repairs and improvements.

The move is thought to be the country's biggest transfer of council house stock.

The Labour council's leader Colin Anderson said: "This is a staggering result.

"We said that the transfer would only go ahead if that was what tenants wanted.

"Clearly, it is what tenants want, and our priority now is to make sure that the hand-over goes ahead as smoothly and speedily as possible.''

Chief executive Colin Sinclair said: "This is a tremendous vote of faith.

"An enormous amount of hard work has gone into encouraging people to vote, so we're very pleased that almost 75 per cent of those eligible to vote have done so.

"We believe this is the only way forward in terms of achieving the levels of investment needed to give our tenants the house improvements and service standards they have come to expect.''

The council says up to 400 jobs could be created by a £120m stock modernisation programme.

About £20m will be spent on fencing, and £20.5m on installing central heating.

A shadow company will be formed before the stock hand-over is finalised