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North West housing associations complete 38,000-home merger
Two housing associations in the North West of England have completed their merger to form one of the largest providers in the region, Inside Housing can reveal.
Torus has merged with Liverpool Mutual Homes to form a 38,000-home social landlord, which will keep the name Torus.
Altogether, the merged organisation, which was formed on 1 January, employs 1,500 staff and had a turnover in the past financial year of over £180m.
It owns homes across Liverpool, St Helens and Warrington and has laid out plans to increase its activities across its core areas in the coming years.
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Torus said it is aiming to deliver 5,300 new homes by 2024 and has promised to allocate £5m of its commercial income every year to what it called “meaningful projects that improve well-being, skills and quality of life”.
Steve Coffey, chief executive for the new group and former chief executive of Liverpool Mutual Homes, said, “The vision for new Torus is driven by a shared commitment to the communities we serve and by a determination to build positive futures across our heartland areas.
“This is more than a joining together of landlords. As a larger, more diverse organisation – simultaneously landlord, property developer, commercial contractor and social entrepreneur – we’ll deliver our vision on a larger scale.”
Torus was originally formed through the merger of Helena Partnership and Golden Gates Housing Trust in April 2015.
Liverpool Mutual Homes, meanwhile, was established following a stock transfer from Liverpool City Council in 2008. This is not the first time it has entered into talks to create a large landlord in the North West.
In February 2015, it announced it was speaking to Symphony Group about the possibility of merging to become a 56,000-home landlord.
These talks, however, fell through in September that year, with Mr Coffey blaming the September 2015 Budget, in which George Osborne announced a 1% rent cut across the social housing sector.
It had planned to revisit that merger at a later date but this has not happened.
