Campaigners who want to keep Bradford's Council houses in the control of the local authority have stepped up their campaign with the launch of a manifesto based on the protection of tenants.

The launch comes at the height of a consultation exercise involving 27,000 tenants on Council proposals to transfer their properties out of the authority.

The Council says it does not have the huge funding needed to bring the district's Council houses in order. It proposes transferring the properties into small non-profit making housing associations and says they could draw finance from the Government-funded Housing Corporation and other sources not open to local authorities.

But the Defend Council Housing Campaign says tenants would suffer heavily in the new regime and there are feasible alternatives.

The decision will ultimately be down to the 27,000 tenants who will all be asked to vote in a referendum probably before the end of this year.

Key points in the campaign manifesto include:

l tenants keeping security of tenure

l repairs to be carried out and backlog cleared with no strings attached

l rents spent on homes, not on "fat cats", and consultants

l a tenants' vote on changes and equal funding for tenant organisations and campaigns.

Liz Devlin, Bradford branch joint chairman of City Hall union Unison, said: "The manifesto builds on the Council's own consultation which said more than 82 per cent of tenants would prefer to stay with the Council.

"The Council has chosen to ignore that fact. We will not."

Campaigner Ann Morgan said they were urging tenants across the district to sign up to the manifesto.

She added: "It is time for tenants to make their voices heard. What was the point of the Council spending thousands of pounds consulting tenants, only to ignore the findings that they wanted to stay with the Council?"

She said there were alternatives including a change in Government legislation to allow all rent money to be invested in housing.

But Councillor Kris Hopkins, executive member for health and housing, said: "If anybody can write down on a piece of paper how we can find £800million needed to bring the houses up to standard, I would like to see it.

"We are looking at a real way of getting repairs and maintenance done and a real process. They want to get into the real world."