Huge changes which will give Tamworth Borough Council greater certainty over its housing budget are due to come into effect in April next year.

Currently the council, along with all other authorities in Britain which still manage their own housing stock, are locked into a system which this year alone meant that around £3 million of rental income has been taken from Tamworth by central government.

Plans to reform the system have been ongoing for some time and a new ‘self-financing’ system will come into effect from April 1 2012.

Under the new system, Tamworth Borough Council will be able to keep all of the rental income it received and will be able to plan with more certainty for the future. In return the council – along with all other councils which have housing stock – will be required to take on a share of the housing debt.

The council will then be free to choose how to spend its housing budget -  on building new council housing, improving existing council homes, improving neighbourhoods through environmental works or any other schemes which will improve what is available to council tenants.

The council will now carry out an in-depth survey of its housing stock to determine where money needs to be spent and which areas are the priorities for investment. A 30-year business plan for housing in Tamworth is also being drawn up in consultation with tenants.

The changes are being hailed as a major opportunity for the council to invest in housing in the borough and to plan long-term housing projects. Cllr Mary Oates, Cabinet member for Quality of Life, said: “We will have full control of where and how the money is spent on housing in Tamworth.

“We will be able to listen to what our tenants want and need and will have a greater degree of certainty about future funding when we make long-term plans."