Salvation Army to merge with landlord

The cost-cutting move would see the 3,500-home Salvation Army Housing Association, which was set up in 1959 to house retired officers, become a subsidiary of the SA.

While the two have worked closely together over the years, they have remained separate organisations.

In the 1970s, when the Housing Corporation was set up, SAHA began receiving development grant funding. The corporation’s rules meant the association could not have become a subsidiary of the Salvation Army without paying back the grant.

Now, with the Tenant Services Authority’s new powers effective as of 1 April, it can allow a parent company of a housing provider to be an organisation it does not regulate. SAHA and the charity handed in an application at the start of the month for the association to hand over its control and ownership to the Salvation Army.

If the TSA agrees - which the organisations are hoping will happen over the next month - the charity must make an assurance it will not touch SAHA’s assets or the £120 million it has received to date in grant funding. The merger is designed to create efficiency savings for both organisations.

The compliance and monitoring units in both will now be merged, but the remit will be enlarged so the two organisations have said there will be no redundancies.

It is hoped much of the savings will come in joint-procurement, such as through the services of contractors or buying bedding and furniture.

Chief executive of SAHA Nigel Parrington said: ‘The new structure will help us to be more efficient in terms of costs and services.’

If the TSA agrees, then SAHA’s 3,500 tenants and 140 staff, as well as local authorities and lenders will be consulted before the changes are eventually signed off.

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