March 2, 2001 9:50: COUNCIL tenants prepared to quit the Wycombe area and move to Kirklees in West Yorkshire could be in line for a golden goodbye to encourage them to go.

Councillors in Wycombe see this as a way of cutting the council's lengthy waiting list and saving some of the £637,000 a year net costs of keeping homeless families in bed and breakfast hostels in Wycombe, Oxford and Slough.

People considering the move up north would get expenses so they could travel north to look at properties, plus about £2,000 to help them.

The idea was the brainchild of Peter Cartwright, chairman of Wycombe's housing and economic development committee, after he and assistant housing manager Dave Kendall went to a homelessness conference in London. It will be discussed at next week's meeting of his committee.

"The conference was not just about building more and more homes," said Cllr Cartwright. "But about looking for new things."

Kirklees, a metropolitan borough on the edge of the Pennines with its main town Huddersfield, has about 250 empty council houses and is looking for tenants, as are other councils in that part of the country, while Wycombe has 1,000 families on its council waiting list and a similar number of existing tenants wanting a transfer.

Cllr Cartwright said there was no reason why council tenants had to stay put in one area of the country, arguing that owner occupiers did not.

In Kirklees a two-bedroom home with central heating costs £49.61 a week, paid for 48 weeks a year with breaks at Christmas and Easter. In Wycombe a similar home would be £60 a week, payable for 52 weeks a year.