LABOUR leaders have "gagged" Bury's housing chief from telling tenants their days with the council are numbered.

The claim was made by housing committee member Sam Cohen after the ruling group virtually ignored the most important housing report for many years.

He is furious that a possible mass sell-off of houses was barely debated at Tuesday's (March 4) meeting.

The Government has told councils that they must draw up plans by July to transfer their housing stock.

And it says local authorities will have their grants chopped even further if they don't make enough effort.

But the item drew hardly a remark, which amazed Mr Cohen, a former Tory councillor and long-serving member of the housing committee. He is now a co-opted representative of the REC.

"It was the most important item and they did not want to discuss it: it's disgusting," he said.

"I'm very surprised that the director did not go more fully into the details.

"I wonder if he was instructed by the chairman and the Labour group to say nothing, because they didn't want to discuss it before the election."

The Government's document, which Bury has until next week to respond to, says it wants councils across the land to transfer 30 per cent of their houses in the next ten years.

As public bodies, councils are severely limited in how much they can borrow to spend on housing.

But if homes are transferred, the new organisation can borrow cash on the open market to invest. Mr Cohen added: "What's upsetting is they have great opportunities to improve the housing conditions in which our tenants are living."

But housing chairman, Labour councillor John Smith, denied that director Sandy Paterson had been told to keep quiet.

He had met Mr Paterson earlier that day, but "we did not discuss that item, just general issues".

And he said the committee had given it short shrift because the plans would be abandoned after Labour won the General Election.

Coun Smith said the tenants' federation had all the information, and there were no opposition councillors to debate the item with on Tuesday.

But if the Tories got back in, he admitted Bury would have a "serious problem".

Mr Paterson would only say: "I presented the information on the basis that there was a General Election coming up, and it will be the subject of a further report."

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