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Troubled housing association Luminus expects to have identified a larger landlord to merge with by the end of September.
The 7,500-home housing association is seeking a merger partner following the departure of chief executive Chan Abraham last month and a damning governance downgrade in March.
Tom Miskell, chair of the Northern Housing Consortium and former chief executive of Together Housing Group, has taken over as interim chief executive of the landlord.
Luminus is currently seeking a merger with a larger housing association and Mr Miskell said he hoped to have identified a partner by the end of September. He said building up the organisation’s development capacity was a key driver for the merger.
“The local council has got a development plan out to consultation where they have set out very ambitious plans in terms of development,” he said.
“On our own, I don’t think we would have the capacity to meet that ambition, which is why we are seeking a partnership.”
He said there had already been approaches from a “number” of providers interested in a merger.
In a letter to Huntingdonshire District Council’s overview and scrutiny committee last week, Mr Miskell said its criteria for the merger included ensuring tenants have the same rights, services and rent guarantees they have now; retaining a base in Huntingdon and a development programme of between 500 to 1,000 homes over five years – significantly more than its current development programme.
Inside Housing can also reveal the organisation uncovered issues with electrical safety in an internal governance review following the downgrade.
It is understood the review revealed electrical safety testing was not being carried out to best practice, with the 7,500-home landlord currently working to resolve the issues.
They are expected to be fully dealt with by September.
The organisation has also redrafted its mission statement to set four clear goals, the first being to provide good quality, energy-efficient homes.
It has removed previous references to “change the world where we are” by mending aspects of “broken Britain”.