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Founder of First Priority defends role
The founder of a housing association that almost went insolvent after signing expensive lease deals has defended his role, denying that it amounted to a conflict of interest.
Omar Al-Hasso, who was revealed as First Priority’s founder in Inside Housing last week, also co-founded Henley Healthcare Investments (HHI), the association’s only lender.
HHI leased numerous homes to First Priority and sold many of them onto private equity funds and investors, effectively starting the now increasingly popular lease-based model of social housing investment.
Under this model, funds lease supported housing to housing associations, receiving index-linked payments from them. Some of these payments were so high that First Priority almost became insolvent earlier this year.
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Mr Al-Hasso told Inside Housing: “We set up First Priority in 2011 to become a specialist provider of supported housing services, utilising leased accommodation. The leasing business model was clearly highlighted to the regulator at the time we applied for registration.”
In 2012, Mr Al-Hasso took the lease-based model to the private equity firm Henley and started HHI as a joint venture.
He told Inside Housing: “I would not have been included in any vote to carry out business (or not) with Henley.”
He said he did not think there was a conflict of interest between these two roles, adding: “My work involved managing relationships with care providers, local authorities and landlords (Henley and non-Henley), as well as discussing the pros and cons of different leases under consideration (both Henley and non-Henley leases). I would not have been a decision-maker to enter into (or not) a Henley lease.”
After he stepped down from the board in August 2015, Mr Al-Hasso continued to attend meetings in order, he told Inside Housing, “to update the board on the status of a large non-Henley deal I was brokering on behalf of First Priority and an independent care provider”.
“Once this non-Henley deal concluded in October 2016, I ceased having any involvement with First Priority at any level,” he said.
