A Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer to the transfer of council housing to a housing association.
For a Large Scale Voluntary Transfer to occur residents must be balloted.
Supporters argue that transfer allows for greater investment to build more housing but critics argue that voluntary transfer amounts to back-door privatisation.
[1] LSVT policies arose in the 1980s as part of the Conservative Government's programme of 'demunicipalisation', whereby the ownership, management, and repair of public housing was transferred from local government (or municipalities) to private contractors and landlords.
Subsequently, a number of Conservative-led rural authorities started to circumvent these restrictions by creating private housing associations, since they could more easily win the assent of tenants to sell estates to these than to more obviously profit-driven owners.