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Midlands housing associations plot 45,000-home merger
Two Midlands housing associations have agreed in principle a merger to create a new 45,000-home landlord.
Waterloo Housing Group and Fortis Living are in talks over a partnership which will have a combined turnover of £230m, around 1,200 staff and more than 120,000 tenants and customers – making it one of the largest housing associations in the region.
Solihull-based Waterloo owns and manages around 26,000 homes across the Midlands, while Fortis has a stock of around 16,000 concentrated in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire.
The new landlord will have ambitions to build around 2,000 new affordable homes a year within five years – 500 more than the two would hope to deliver separately.
It will also establish a new maintenance business to oversee £50m of yearly investment in the group’s housing stock.
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A merger was approved by the organisations’ boards on 31 October and detailed planning and consultations are now taking place.
Subject to feedback from tenants and customers, the partnership will become official on 1 October 2018.
David Pickering, chief executive of Waterloo Housing Group, said: “Both organisations are strong, high-performing housing businesses with similar backgrounds, a strong social purpose and shared vision and culture, as well as an overlapping geography.
“Together we can maximise efficiencies and generate additional resources to deliver even more quality new homes and services to current and future customers.”
Waterloo merged with 6,000-home association Acclaim in April 2016. It had a turnover of £134.9m for 2016/17, achieving an operating surplus of £59.1m.
Guy Weston, chief executive of Fortis Living, said: “By coming together we can consolidate our resources and use our combined capacity to make a real and positive difference to the lives of our customers and the communities they live in.
“Our joint financial strength will enable us to mitigate risk and to be far better prepared for the future.”
Fortis was formed through a merger between Festival Housing and Worcester Community Housing in 2014. Its turnover for 2016/17 was £96m, with an operating surplus of £39.8m.
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