WINCHESTER tenant group, TACT, has written to the new Prime Minister to ask for fair treatment of council house residents.

David Cruden and Alan Rickman, who chair Tenants and Council Together (TACT), have appealed to Gordon Brown to hear their concerns.

They stressed that the group's members want to continue renting their homes and want to keep Winchester City Council as their landlord.

They contended that despite the recognised need for more affordable housing, and the clear role housing associations will play in this, the Government should continue to support council houses as well.

In the letter, they said: "Housing for our children and grandchildren is of vital concern to us, if they are to have any sort of future.

"We put our trust in your hands, please do not let us down. For the first time in a long while, we begin to feel someone actually cares."

TACT members previously wrote to Tony Blair about the negative subsidy taken from the Council's Housing Revenue Account each year of more than £7m.

They say that the money paid in rent should all go to improving homes in Winchester, as well as the provision of new council homes.

The letter to Mr Brown added: "Please allow us the right to have the money we pay in rent to go to our own homes in Winchester, and let us stay with our council as landlord.

"We have made it clear that this is our wish when the last Housing Options took place.

"TACT knows it has to be gone through again, which is money down the drain. As tenants, we will not change our minds, tenants tell us so at our regular meetings."