THE head of a trust which owns Ilkley's former council houses could soon lose his own home to a redevelopment scheme.

Gerald Goldsbrough, a parish councillor and chairman of the Aire-Wharfe Community Housing Trust, faces the prospect of seeing his flat demolished after Bradford council bosses agreed to back the project financially.

At a meeting this week Bradford Council's executive agreed in principle not to impose a claw back agreement on funds raised by selling off former local authority assets.

Bradford Council's 27,000 council houses and flats - including around 800 in the Ilkley area - were sold for £70 million in February 2003 to the Bradford Community Housing Trust Group (BCHTG). The group is the umbrella body for the district's six area housing trusts, one of which is the Aire-Wharfe.

As part of the agreement, the council was entitled to claw back 50 per cent of any financial gain that BCHTG would get if it re-sold any of its new assets to a third party.

But now BCHTG, whose chairman is Ilkley district councillor Martin Smith, wants to sell off some assets in deals with private companies.

The trust wants to do a deal with private developers to knock down the flats and replace them with a mix of social and private housing, financed by the private developer. This is seen as an efficient way to replace unpopular accommodation with modern social housing.

One of the apartment blocks the trust wants to get rid of is Dale Court in Ben Rhydding - the home of Councillor Goldsbrough, who has been chairman of the local Aire-Wharfe Trust since it was created two years ago.

Yesterday, council bosses agreed in principle to waive the clawback agreement, to make it easier for any social housing scheme for Dale Court to be agreed.

Similar schemes are proposed for The Lawn, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston Hall, Menston. In a report to the meeting, both housing complexes are described as obsolete with shared facilities and 'hard to let'.

After the meeting Councillor Smith said that the not-for-profit organisation could not afford new developments from its own funds because of financial constraints imposed by the 'Right to Buy' scheme.

But he said that deals with private developers could provide brand new social housing to replace outdated apartment blocks like Dale Court, which at present has room for around 30 tenants. The developer would make a profit by selling off private homes on the same site.

Coun Smith said: "They are single bed units with shared facilities which you can't let these days. It is pointless have places empty - you have got to redevelop it."

He said he was pleased that Bradford Council agreed in principle to consider waiving the claw back agreement and suggested that a scheme to redevelop Dale Court could be drawn up in three or four years' time.

"It is the only way we can make the deal stack up with social housing and the council understands that," said Coun Smith.

Yesterday, Coun Goldsbr-ough, who has lived at Dale Court for around five years, said that he was not worried about losing his own home when the scheme was put forward.

He said: "I don't think there is anything to be concerned about. The tenants' needs will be more than adequately looked after whatever scheme is put forward." All the tenants would be found alternative accommodation.

"The scheme will be put to the tenants and they will be properly involved and advised as to what is going on. The tenants will be quite happy and their interests will be paramount - it is not a problem," said Coun Goldsbrough.

Coun Smith said he could not rule out an overall net reduction in social housing places as a result of the redevelopment deals with private firms.