North west landlords consider merger
Two of the north west’s largest housing associations are in talks about a possible merger.
Contour Housing Group and Vicinity Housing Group are considering whether to amalgamate the two organisations by creating a new parent body and retaining the existing subsidiary housing associations.
The link up could be underway by 31 March 2011 and the organisations are now working on the business case for the change.
A merger would create a new group whose associations would own more than 37,000 homes around the north west with nearly 1,000 staff. The group’s subsidiary bodies would be Contour Homes, Hyndburn Homes and Peak Valley Housing Association, which are part of Contour Housing Group, and Vicinity Housing Group’s members Liverpool Housing Trust, Colbalt Housing, Beechwood Ballantyne, Atrium and Ribble Valley Homes.
Contour’s chief executive Mike Creamer said: ‘We have similar structures and approaches to the way we work. We have number of subsidiaries and we are committed to retaining and supporting those but focus is on bringing together the two parent organisations.’
He continued: ‘We think there will be benefits in terms of customer service, working more efficiently and doing things jointly that we could not do by ourselves.’
He said it was possible that staff numbers could drop in some areas of the business but grow in others. He added: ‘We could see a growth in staff numbers. Even if that were not the case this is not an exercise in how to lose staff but how we use them more efficiently.’
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Readers' comments (3)
Melvin Bone | 12/11/2009 9:38 am
'this is not an exercise in how to lose staff but how we use them more efficiently.’
And I'm a monkey's uncle.
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Trevor Galley - Managing Director. | 12/11/2009 1:23 pm
This is not uncommon.
Big and small mergers have happened over recent years and there have been good reasons and many a success, perhaps the CIH should research/review past mergers and publish and see first hand the outcomes for stakeholders and demonstrate the net gains. What is amazing is the business case has not yet been produced? Is this testing the water a press release?
Read http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/upload/pdf/44mergers.pdf or simalar docs from the CIH.
In todays world we have to accept it and support it, it would be nice to think jobs will not go but "Too many Chiefs etc" and opportunities to get economies of scale through "Right Sizing" will yeild benefits to customers/stakeholders.
What suprises me is given the number of CEO's visiting foreign parts (A number in Oz at present promoting ALMO's) when will we see international mergers? Perhaps UK/Oz eventually! Lets await the business case - and reflect on success's - credit where credit is due look @ Places for People an excellent national example (Look @ what they are doing) for the UK.
as to fat cat salaries , some CEO's are not paid enough- look at Places for People (The asset value, workload and comittment to communities) What would a simalar CEO in the Private sector command?
Business's are transforming all the time - lets await the business case
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Trevor Galley - Managing Director. | 13/11/2009 2:13 pm
My thanks to those friends that phoned me. Here are some further thoughts on the merger -
Effective public services are vital to our individual and collective wellbeing and prosperity, they are the foundation for a fair and cohesive society, and they enable us to cope with the uncertainties in life, develop our potential and provide pathways to opportunities. They are and expression of our shared values and aspirations. They correct underlying equalities and advance other social, economic and environmental objectives. Community housing provisions no matter the setting or provider are a pathway to improved quality of life.
Any successful vision for change and this proposed merger is a big one; must make full use of past knowledge and shared learning from others, their own organisational experience and know how of stakeholders (Customers and front line staff included). This not only means thinking about rights, obligations, rules and expectations and but also organisational purpose which defines the relationships between customers, staff and organisational needs.
Any forward thinking business and whether we like it or not community housing provisions in the UK may in many cases be “Not for Profit” but they are and must be a business and given the tough economic climate we are in we do need to work together and think beyond traditional ways of working if we are to improve collective well being. Economic growth is and will continue to be slow, the playing field for social housing provision has never really been level and government are reluctant to fund growth via taxation or massive rent increases, I doubt whether we will see a green tax introduced by social landlords and yet there are clear expectations that social landlords and their customers can and should do more.
The drivers for such mergers are therefore obvious and include:
• Increased demand for services due to an aging population and an increasing trend of young families and demands for single household accommodation. There are also problems in meeting diverse demands – it’s hard to reconcile individualism and public good where there are fundamental differences in values, cultures and priorities between sections of the community.
• Communities are changing, community identities are becoming more complex and this presents a challenge in how best to provide services to meet a mixed complexity of needs and how it should be organised. We are only scratching the surface at present with neighbourhood management housing service provisions – In the north west Blackpool and Wigan Councils and nationally Places for People these organisations have done some astounding work and are actively joining up services and meeting and lobbying for community needs, including addressing worklessness, maximising customer income and empowering communities.
• Expectations of a diverse range and mix of customers are increasing all the time.
• Technology is changing the way we live and work and how we will and can engage with each other and will determine how we all interact with each other. It can be a solution to a problem or present a problem or challenge itself, advances in technology and access to the information highway. Home access to the inter net provides customers with direct access good practice, citizen rights, organisational performance, information on neighbourhood crime figures and Ombudsman success stories. Whilst technological advances can present opportunities to deliver efficient services it can also provide for inequalities as not every one can access it.
• The damaging effect of the current economic climate are evident in that community housing providers have to make tough decisions about spending priorities and managers will need to produce the business case for future change at all levels of an organisation. And as in industry mergers can can be the difference between sustaining and growuing community housing provision and stagnating.
Trevor Galley
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