Tenants across Dacorum have been assured that homes provided by the borough council will not be transferred to a housing association.

This decision follows a meeting of Dacorum Borough Council to discuss the future of housing offered, on Wednesday evening.

Councillors considered whether to ballot tenants on transferring the council’s housing stock to a housing association, or keep the homes under a new financial scheme starting April 2012.

The new “self financing” arrangements will see an end to the £20million Dacorum Council tenants currently have to pay each year to the government.

Instead the council will take a share of the national housing debt for council housing and use some of this money to pay the debt.

The new arrangements will mean an increase in cash the council is able to spend on improving homes, particularly after the first five years.

“The debt we take on is just like a mortgage, and the new model builds in the ability to pay it off," said Andrew Williams, leader of the council and Conservative representative.

“The decision is not an easy one, it is one of the hardest I have had to make in over twenty years as council leader, but I feel it is the best one for our tenants and for the community."

According to Councillor Margaret Griffiths, deputy leader, the transfer option had become too “risky”.

The Conservative representative said: “The government requires a new value-for-money test, taking away the advantage of the community gateway model we had previously agreed.

“Added to this, the delay in councils receiving details of the new financial arrangements have made the timetable for a stock transfer short.

“When we first considered transferring our housing stock two years ago, the arguments for and against were quite balanced.

“Since then changes in government policy have shifted the balance, offering greater benefit from keeping our homes under council management.”