Plans for a big council house sell-off in the Arun district may be shelved after tenants made it clear they were opposed to the move.

It means 3,800 homes in Littlehampton, Bognor and Arundel will remain under the control of Arun District Council, which will continue to take charge of repairs and rents.

Tenants voted in 1989 to stay with the council but, since then, thousands of homes in Worthing, Chichester and Horsham have been sold off to newly-formed housing companies after tenants took part in secret ballots.

However, Arun appears unlikely to ballot its tenants for a second time after members of the district tenants and leaseholders organisation confirmed they were opposed to homes being transferred.

Councillors have been told staging another ballot would be a "risky undertaking", which could cost council taxpayers £250,000 for a predictable no vote.

Instead, the council has published a five-year housing strategy, which says it will use its influence to make low-cost housing a priority in all new development schemes.

The strategy also says the council will press for more Government help towards housing the homeless after an increase in the size of the housing register from 720 applications to 953 during the last two years.