A BLACKBURN company has made it on to a shortlist of firms vying to take control of Hyndburn's 3,500 council houses.

Twin Valley Homes will be told in May if its bid to form a partnership company to manage Hyndburn Council's housing stock has been successful.

The company will meet representatives from Hyndburn Borough Council in the coming weeks to discuss the plans.

Chief executive of Twin Valley Phil Richards said his company's local knowledge made it the perfect partner for Hyndburn.

A shortlist of six companies was put together by Hyndburn Borough Council last week, from which one will eventually be chosen if tenants vote to transfer stock next year.

Manchester's Harvest Group, the Muir Group based in Chester, New Charter Housing Trust Group from Hyde, Salford's Poritco Housing Association and Progress Housing Group from Leyland are also in the running.

Hyndburn councillor Tony Dobson, the executive member for housing, said: "The council is at an early stage in its partner selection process.

"The joint selection panel, made up of tenants, councillors and council staff, has agreed on a list of prospective social landlords who expressed interest in partnering Hyndburn.

"The next stage is to examine various aspects of these and to develop a shortlist for further consideration.

"The joint selection panel is tasked with agreeing a shortlist at a meeting to be held on March 30."

Twin Valley chief executive Phil Richards said: "We have a company that is very successful and we want to share that with people.

"We want to be able to work with people and perhaps form a group structure so that we can help Hyndburn achieve what we have achieved."

Mr Richards said that his company's proximity to Hyndburn and experience gained from helping staff move from a council to a private company environment could help his company to be chosen.

He added: "We want to form a partnership structure with an over-arching board so the people of Hyndburn would always be in charge of the Hyndburn homes.

"We have been through the stock transfer process and we know what the tenants and housing staff want to hear."