PENDLE Council is being "bullied and bribed" into transferring its municipal housing to a registered social landlord, Lord Tony Greaves has told Parliament.

He made his comments ahead of a vote by council house tenants, who are being asked to choose whether their homes should stay under council control or be transferred to a housing association.

But Lord Greaves is angered because he says the vote is not a fair fight as tenants will get a massive cash injection from the government for a spruce up if they vote to come under social landlord control.

The peer said that 35 years ago the borough had 5,500 council homes and now has 3,500.

He said there had been a history of considerable investment in its properties which were in good condition with high tenant satisfaction. But over the years the government had taken over control of rents and finances and reduced subsidies.

Now the council has been told that if it transfers properties it will get an extra half a million pounds every year for its general revenue account and an extra £15million over five years would go to the new housing association.

Proceeds from council house sales under the right to buy system would be split between the two, providing an extra £3million for the council.

There would also be a VAT windfall of £7.5million for the housing association and the council and rent arrears of £200,000 would be repaid to the council.

But Lord Greaves, a Pendle councillor who lives in Colne, said: "Altogether this adds up to a likely investment in council housing in Pendle of £45million over the next five years.

"The estimate the council itself, within present rules, can possibly afford, or will be allowed to spend is around £10million. Ask the tenants whether they are going to vote for a transfer or not: they would be frankly quite stupid not to do so.

"All these outcomes are not the result of any natural laws or anything like that, they are a direct result of central government policy."

Lord Greaves said that if the transfer goes ahead the council would get a windfall of around £20million over five years on top of a budget of £13million.

But he said that if the ballot was lost not only would the extra cash fail to come for council housing but the £100,000 cost of staging the vote would have to come out of council finance. If the vote is in favour, central government would pay.

Lord Greaves said: "The whole things seems to me to be vote rigging on an astonishing scale.

"It is blatant bribery and the government really should be ashamed."