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Housing association cancels Essex withdrawal after properties receive no bids
Origin Housing has cancelled its withdrawal from Essex after it was unable to sell any of its properties.
Five entities looked at Origin Housing’s retirement homes in Chelmsford, but none of them bid, Inside Housing understands.
The 7,000-home landlord, which is in merger talks with Places for People, the large housing association, will keep the properties and recruit a new scheme manager.
Beginning late last year, Origin had been looking for new owners for its Essex properties, to refocus its business on London and Hertfordshire.
The housing association owns three properties in Chelmsford: Peverell House, Cobb’s Place and Dawn House. It acquired the sites through a merger with Humanist Housing Association in 2000.
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Inside Housing understands the properties are mostly studio flats, which can be more expensive to modernise and fit to compliance standards.
The landlord previously tried to sell the properties in the early 2010s, when it appointed Colne Housing as the managing agent, but later retook the sites.
Following the unsuccessful tender process, Origin will continue to own and run the homes. They are no longer for sale and the landlord will not appoint a managing agent. The planned merger with Places for People will not affect its plans, Origin added.
A spokesperson for Origin Housing said: “During the bidding process we had interest from several organisations.
“However, for a variety of reasons, none of these resulted in a bid.
“Having reviewed our options, we plan to keep these retirement schemes as part of Origin and recruit a new permanent scheme manager.
“There are no plans to change this after the merger with Places for People.”
In October 2023, Places for People promised to invest “at least” £50m in existing Origin homes over a five to 10-year period, should it complete a tie-up with the smaller housing association.
Residents were told that the Origin brand would revert to its original name, St Pancras, before fully integrating with Places for People after around two years.
In the same month, the Regulator of Social Housing placed Origin on its gradings under review list. The regulator said it was investigating the landlord on matters that may affect its compliance with the governance and financial viability standard.
The investigation lead to the landlord being downgraded to non-compliant grades of G3 and V3 in December.
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