INDEPENDENT Socialist councillor Andrew Holder has resigned from the Brunshaw estate management board in protest against the sell-off of Burnley council houses.

He told members he refused to recognise the new housing company and would not be associated with them in any way.

Coun Holder was the only councillor to oppose the transfer of the town's 5,300 council homes to new company, Burnley and Padiham Housing.

Coun Holder, a council house tenant, forecast a rapid rise in rents after the five-year honeymoon period, leading to more difficulties in rent payment and more evictions.

He asked: "Why were no bad points ever raised during the campaign or any funds for a counter 'no' vote reserved? Answer, the stock would go at any cost. The vote was not democratic. It was a one-horse race from start to finish."

Coun Holder repeated his earlier criticism over new tenants paying 20 per cent more than existing tenants.

He added: "People in council houses are here for various reasons - women escaping domestic violence, marriage split-ups, young people with housing needs, elderly and disabled people with special housing needs.

"If I was a new tenant, I would challenge the 20 per cent surcharge in the law courts and would even go as far as the European Court of Human Rights."

Coun Holder told the EMB: "I will not sell out my socialist principles to a bunch of gutless wonders who run this town. "I will criticise the company every time it makes a mistake, big or small, and I feel this would bring the EMB into disrepute if I carried on as a co-opted member.

"I have no faith in the company or the people who run it and will not work with them in any shape or form. I am not a fan member of privatisation but a proud socialist against privatisation in any form."

The £74million sale negotiated its final hurdle last month when the Government announced it would make up the £20 million shortfall between the sale price of the houses and the lower figure of what they were actually worth.

Earlier tenants had backed the deal by more than 90 per cent in a ballot.

The housing company will take charge next month. It has the power to raise cash and will spend £30million on improvements in the first five years of operation - and nearly £200million over the next 30 years.

Existing tenants have been given a guarantee that rents will rise by no more than one per cent above inflation and they will retain a right to buy their properties.

New tenants, however, will have to pay 20 per cent more than existing rents when they move into a council house - and average hike of around £9 per week.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.