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Major specialist housing associations announce merger talks
Two specialist housing associations which provide homes to the elderly have announced they are in merger talks to create a giant 53,000-home organisation.
Hanover and Anchor have announced talks to join forces as the Anchor Hanover Group.
The new organisation would have a combined turnover of almost £500m a year based on figures from the sector’s global accounts for 2016/17.
In a joint statement, Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of 34,000-home Anchor, and Dame Clare Tickell, chief executive of 19,000-home Hanover, said: “People can look forward to living longer than ever before. More specialist housing and care will be needed going forwards, with new types of services.
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“At Hanover and Anchor, we understand these changing needs. We have ambitious plans and want to provide more services, driven by the needs and aspirations of the growing number of older people.
“A new, bigger organisation has the potential to provide the best value-for-money services for our customers now and in the future. It would also enable us to offer better career options for colleagues, and help us attract and retain great people.
“Crucially, a single, bigger organisation could build more properties for older people than we could remaining as separate organisations. This could include social rented, shared ownership and outright sale new homes.”
Ms Ashcroft is designate chief executive of the new organisation, while the designate chair is Stuart Burgess, currently chair of Hanover.
The new organisation would continue to be a major provider of residential care to older people, a joint statement said.
The organisations are now consulting on the move and will announce the next steps in the late summer or autumn.
Anchor turned over £374m in 2016/17, producing a surplus of £10.6m, while Hanover turned over £120.9m to produce a surplus of £12.2m, according to figures from the global accounts for the sector produced by the Regulator of Social Housing.
