A political row over plans to sell off council houses to a registered social landlord has prompted the Three Rivers Conservative group to pull out of the scheme.

The Liberal Democrat lead Three Rivers District Council has set up the Thrive Housing Association to purchase housing stock if residents vote in favour of the transfer.

Tenants will be presented with an "offer" and balloted on the proposals when the terms are agreed next week.

But the Conservative group claims residents are being "railroaded" into accepting the deal, which they say may not be in their best interests.

Conservative councillor Leonard Spencer said: "This decision is one of the biggest in many tenants' lives and it must be taken very carefully with all the facts revealed to them, not just those the Lib-Dems find convenient to tell them.

"Thrive has absolutely no track record as a housing association and is not nearly as good as is being portrayed to them."

The council's Labour group has already pulled out of the housing association, leaving only Liberal Democrats members on board.

The Lib-Dem run councils says the transfer is necessary because there are not sufficient funds to maintain housing stock to a decent standard. The housing revenue is expected to run into deficit by 2014 if the stock is not sold off.

Council leader Ann Shaw said: "The Government has put us in an impossible position by taking so much money away from housing each year that we cannot provide the service for our tenants that we want to provide.

"We can only advise tenants to transfer, because the situation regarding maintenance and repairs will get steadily worse if they do not."