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A Midlands-based housing association has completed the first of two mergers it was planning.
Bromford today announced that it has finalised the legal aspects of its deal with South West-based Merlin, which will form a 40,000-home organisation.
The association will still be known as Bromford, despite early indications that it might call itself Bromford Merlin.
It plans to invest £1.5bn in 14,000 new homes over the next 10 years in both the South West and the Midlands.
Bromford also revealed in March this year that it is in formal talks with Gloucestershire-based Severn Vale Housing over another merger, which is expected to be completed in early 2019.
This would take the overall number of homes owned and managed by the organisation to almost 44,000, bringing their delivery target for the decade up to 15,000.
In a joint statement, Philippa Jones, chief executive of Bromford, and Robert Nettleton, the current chief executive of Merlin, said: “The new organisation allows us to combine our financial strength to make an even bigger impact in the communities where we work.
“The newly-shaped Bromford will enable us to build the crucial homes to help solve the UK’s housing crisis and, even more importantly, allow us to extend the benefits and expertise of our newly-combined teams, including our neighbourhood coaching approach, to even more people and communities.”
Meanwhile, credit ratings agency Moody’s this week confirmed Bromford’s A1 rating with a negative outlook, with a view that this would continue for the new organisation.
As well as engaging in two sets of merger talks simultaneously, Bromford is also unusual in the sector in that it has left the multi-employer Social Housing Pension Scheme, as Inside Housing exclusively revealed in January.