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Boards at Welsh landlords approve merger plans
The board of the largest housing association in Wales has agreed plans to merge with another landlord.
Newport-based Pobl revealed in its latest accounts that talks had taken place throughout the year over a potential merger with Cardiff-based Linc Cymru.
Pobl is the much larger landlord with more than 18,000 homes. Together, the associations would form a 23,000-home organisation.
In its annual financial statement, Pobl said the talks had advanced to the point where in June 2023, the boards of both associations approved the joint business case.
One month later in July, a designate chief executive of the merged landlord was appointed. Stepping into the designate role is current Linc boss Scott Sanders.
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In their joint forward to Pobl’s accounts, chair Julia Cherrett and chief executive Amanda Davies explained they had entered merger talks as they believe “we are two like-minded organisations with a huge amount of synergy”.
They added: “We’ve been exploring how, by joining together, we can create greater opportunities for our customers and colleagues by investing at a level we have been unable to achieve before.
“We want to make sure we can grow at scale to deliver more new homes and services while still ensuring our current homes perform well, our services and rents remain affordable, and we remain a great place to work.”
Both landlords are now working with funders and the Welsh regulator to obtain the relevant consents to progress with the tie-up.
At the end of last month, Pobl reported a £30m annual increase in spending on new homes.
According to its latest accounts, the landlord invested £100.5m on new homes in the year to the end of March 2023, up from £70.9m in the previous year.
The 18,000-home landlord completed 364 new homes in 2023-23, the same as the previous year, but it has increased the number of homes in its development pipeline from 600 to 2,900.
Turnover was broadly the same year on year at £169.8m, while the Newport-based landlord’s surplus before tax decreased £4m to £7.9m.
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