Star comment: Uncertain time ahead for tenants
Amid all the pros and cons which will be chewed over in the light of a study which looks at the idea of Shropshire Council selling off 4, 200 council homes, sight should not be lost of an important - and to thousands of people the most important - thing.
These are human lives we are talking about, not just bricks and mortar. Council tenants will be wondering what is going to happen and how they will be affected. Will they be able to keep their homes? If so, what will be the practical differences?
Any sale would mean council tenants switching to private landlords or a housing association, so there seem no grounds for any fears of tenants losing homes. Nevertheless, tenants will be used to the current regime and change always brings its challenges, as well as creating an unsettling atmosphere, at least initially.
Nothing has been decided. Indeed, not much has been revealed. Estate agent Savills has provided the council with options, but the findings of the report are being kept under wraps.
Perhaps there is a debate to be had over whether council housing constitutes local authority family jewels to be retained if at all possible, or a costly burden to be got rid of and turned into ready cash if the disposal can be done in an acceptable way.
If your view tends to the former, then the problem in flogging off the family jewels is that once they are gone, they are gone, and you never know when you might miss them.
It is interesting that while Shropshire Council is examining the possibility of disposing of council housing managed by Star Housing, an arms-length management organisation that the council set up, over at Telford & Wrekin Council a council-owned private rental housing firm called Nuplace last year achieved a £274,000 pre-tax profit and in addition generated income of over £1m for the council.
Through Nuplace, hundreds of new homes have been built in Telford.
Shropshire Council's thread of thought is now out in the open, even if the precise details are not.
As, when, and if any proposals become concrete, councillors need to remember that these financial decisions have human consequences, and that there will be people in Bridgnorth and Oswestry whose homes and futures are at stake who would like to be kept in the loop.
