On 6th of April 2022 Jack Simpson wrote in insight housing about the three-way merger talks to create 60,000-home landlords to be begun by large housing associations. According to him,
The BPHA, Futures Housing Group (FHG), and Flagship Group have began talks to form a new landlord that would operate across East and Central England and become the region’s largest provider.
The conversations are now exploratory, according to the organisations, and would be subject to each housing association’s board of directors.
The landlords believe the merger will improve the region’s social housing and services.
Flagship is the largest of the three partners, with 32,000 properties owned and managed primarily in the East of England. The Norwich-based landlord has been on a merger binge recently, with the 3,000-home Suffolk Housing Society joining the company in January 2020.
This came after Flagship amalgamated with Victory Housing, a 5,000-home landlord, in January 2019.
The East Anglian association received the top G1/V1 grades for governance and financial viability from the Regulator of Social Housing in its most recent in-depth evaluation.
The Bedford-based BPHA owns and maintains about 19,500 properties, the most of which are in the Cambridge, Oxford, and Bedfordshire area.
Kevin Bolt, the association’s chief executive for the past eight years, announced in October that he would be stepping down in May.
The landlord currently has a G1 rating for governance but a V2 rating for financial viability from the English regulator, which is the second highest grade.
From Derbyshire in the East Midlands to Daventry, FHG owns and administers almost 10,000 houses. It now intends to spend £190 million on new housing construction by 2024.
The regulator has given it a G1/V1 rating for governance and financial viability.
FHG was created in 2007 when Amber Valley Housing and Daventry & District Housing merged to become FHG.
The three housing authorities are the most recent to propose a large-scale consolidation.
Catalyst and Peabody concluded a merger arrangement last week that will result in a new tenancy with 104,000 homes.
Southern and Optivo are also in negotiations about becoming a 77,000-home landlord together.
“In these early stages of talks, it is clear we have much in common, including geographic synergy, shared priorities to improve customer service, and the provision of more homes,” the chairs of the three organisations, Paul Leinster (BPHA), Peter Hawes (Flagship), and Mike Stevenson (Futures), said in a joint statement.
“BPHA (A+, S&P), Flagship (A2, Moody’s), and Futures (A+, S&P) all have good credit ratings, providing a solid financial foundation for a collaboration.”