IN response to Mr Jim Buckley's queries (Letters, May 24) regarding the proposed transfer of Blackburn with Darwen's council homes to Twin Valley Homes -- a new independent not-for-profit housing organisation set up by the council, the Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services, Phil Richards, will contact him to answer his questions in detail.

However, I would point out that the council is providing tenants with detailed information so they can make an informed choice in the transfer vote this summer.

As part of the consultation which the council is undertaking, a formal 'offer document' will be sent to every tenant in the next few weeks. It contains detailed information which answers Mr Buckley's questions and many others posed by tenants about the transfer and Twin Valley Homes.

Over the next few weeks, tenants will also receive a video explaining the transfer and during the summer a roadshow will take place and staff will visit tenants' homes to answer their questions.

All the material issued by the council is approved by the council's legal consultants and the tenants' independent adviser appointed to offer tenants free independent advice. Tenants can also get answers to their questions by calling the council's freephone -- 0800 035 0854. Alternatively, tenants can get free independent advice by calling the independent adviser on freephone 0800 146702.

Tenants will decide the future of their homes. The transfer can only go ahead if tenants vote in favour of transfer in a secret postal ballot in the late summer.

If the transfer goes ahead, tenants would benefit from:

Rent guarantee -- rent increases less than those anticipated by the council;

£130million repairs and modernisation over 30 years, of which £107million would be committed within the first five years;

A bigger say in the running of their homes -- a third of Twin Valley Homes' board would be made up of tenants;

Rights and entitlements protected.

Again, I must stress that it is the tenants' choice -- they will decide the future of their homes.

COUNCILLOR MOHAMMED KHAN, Executive Member of Housing and Neighbourhood Services, Blackburn with Darwen Council.