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Our merger plans are about taking control of our own destiny at a challenging time
The planned merger between Great Places and MSV is not about driving growth, writes Charlie Norman. Instead, it is very much about focusing on our existing homes and services, and the quality our customers expect
I recently visited one of our Foyers, a place for young people to live safely, with support to grow and ultimately live independently.
Like so many of my colleagues, I have such hopes for the young people (and everyone) we serve. But my sense of optimism is tinged with concern about what the future holds, given the current socio-economic climate, which is turbulent to say the least.
We are working in an increasingly challenging operating environment. There seems to be a shock a day at the moment!
This is why Great Places and Mosscare St Vincent’s (MSV) have decided to keep ahead of the curve and make strategic decisions that are about being a resilient business for social good.
One of my favourite books, The Good Ancestor, is about long-term thinking in a short-term world. It just feels more relevant than ever to think about our impact in providing the right homes and services for this and future generations – our actions now will have a huge impact later.
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Great Places and MSV have mindfully entered into merger talks for all the right reasons. The discussions to date have been based around values and social justice.
The challenges driving the merger are clear. This is a tough time for our current and future customers, and for us as businesses.
The economic outlook, the drive to net zero, rising inflation and costs, greater inequality and the broad range of requirements for us as landlords and community anchors have been at the forefront of our minds and hearts.
We want to do even more to support people through the current cost-of-living crisis but also in the long term, to ensure we can offer as many safe, healthy and affordable homes as possible.
This is not a merger opportunity born out of necessity, quite the opposite. It’s about taking control of our destiny.
Great Places and MSV have grown up together since the late 1960s. Both are ‘traditionals’, absolutely rooted in the North, have similar origins and have expanded through merger and wide-ranging development programmes.
We are both proud collaborators, working with our partners in Greater Manchester and across the North West and Yorkshire to influence policy and to play our part in placeshaping. We want this partnership focus to remain core to our values going forward.
I’ve been asked about our reasons for the merger. What I will say is that this proposal is not about driving growth, as we have a healthy development programme to help tackle the housing crisis. Everyone has the right to a decent home they can afford.
Instead, this is very much about focusing on our existing homes and services, and the quality that our customers expect.
This will be made possible by our shared geography, our commitment to communities, and our absolute focus on homes in the North – places where people can start well, live well and age well.
Through this shared geographical footprint, we want to further strengthen our repairs, neighbourhood and investment plans, moving even closer to our customers and communities as a larger, but more local, provider. As well as centres of excellence in areas such as shared ownership, we hope to also build on our wide-ranging offer around supported, independent and later living, and our role in health creation and the prevention of poverty and homelessness.
Our aim is that the merger will generate about £4m extra a year in efficiency savings to invest into services for customers and reduce our carbon footprint. Both organisations are committed to retrofitting homes and playing our part in addressing the climate crisis and the need for warmer, healthier homes.
We will provide 34,000 homes in the North and develop thousands of new homes to help tackle the housing crisis.
We will employ 1,000 people locally. We will be an inclusive employer of choice and create more opportunities for personal development across our diverse communities.
We have just launched our engagement plan with colleagues, customers, funders, partners and other stakeholders. We plan to co-create what happens next with this exciting new chapter. All being well with due diligence and stakeholder engagement, we plan to merge on 1 July next year.
I am honoured to have been selected as chief executive designate after Matt Harrison, a fellow leader in the sector whose work I greatly admire and respect, steps down after 30 years at Great Places. He will be missed by all of us.
Providing continuity and stability, the chair of the new Great Places will be Tony Davison (current chair of Great Places), and Gareth Hall, the current chair of MSV, will be vice-chair. Six members of each board will form the new post-merger board.
I am looking forward to working with them and the current executive teams, to support successful transition and integration and create a long-term vision and plan for the future. It will be great to spend some time talking to colleagues and customers from both of these great organisations in the coming months.
Our new organisation will continue the legacy of the founder organisations spanning six decades. It will put customer voice and influence at the heart of decision-making, focus on doing the basics well for all customers and play its part in building community resilience.
Whilst these are worrying times, the next few months will be busy and exciting for MSV and Great Places, and we want to get this right.
We think we have a compelling business case – not one that is predicated on huge growth and savings, but one that puts people at the heart of all that we do and will strengthen our resilience to support our social purpose.
Charlie Norman, chief executive, MSV
