We had a home visit from a couple of Council staff yesterday. They weren’t volunteers they had been told they had to do it, as well as doing their day job. They were either barely briefed at all, or briefed badly – not their fault of course. They knew very little about the issues.

They were giving us misinformation – not deliberately – but because they had had so little explained to them by their managers.

For instance they said that Swindon Council was “turning into a Housing Association”. It is not, of course, it is selling off its houses to a new HA, a separate legal entity. They would be HA homes not Council ones.

Secondly, they told us “the Council had been told to do it”. Not true, of course.

Faced with a big decision about the future of our housing how can the Council send out people who are so badly informed to inform tenants about a decision which will affect our future?

I suspect that untrained staff are being sent out only to identify those who want “more information”, or are uncertain, who will then receive a visit from somebody who is likely to be pro-transfer.

I recently received a phone call from a tenant who had spoke to a senior officer. Now these people are not supposed to be selling transfer, but merely “presenting facts”. But as the tenant explained to me this officer had been saying that “it will be much better if we go over to a HA”!

If you have had a home visit, let us know about your experience.