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Large Midlands association ditches name amid major restructure
One of the Midlands’ largest housing associations has outlined plans to ditch its name and bring its partner groups under one new banner as part of a major transformation of the group’s structure.
The 30,000-home WM Housing Group and its subsidiaries Family Housing Association, Optima Community Association, West Mercia Homes and Whitefriars Housing will no longer exist as legal entities and instead be brought under a new name: Citizen.
Kevin Rodgers, chief executive of the group, unveiled the plans to Inside Housing today, which will see the amalgamation and rebrand officially completed in September.
As part of the move, the new association has pledged to invest £870m into its housing stock and communities over the next five years.
The five-year investment plan includes £500m to be spent on the construction of 500 homes built for private sale and 2,800 affordable homes by 2024.
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Mr Rodgers confirmed that two thirds of the planned affordable homes would be built for rent and the remaining third would be built for shared ownership.
The details of the investment plan come just a month after WM Housing confirmed it had joined the Accord-led Matrix Housing Partnership to help it deliver its promise of 2,257 additional homes by 2022 as part of its strategic partnership arrangement with Homes England.
The remaining investments will include £200m in planned maintenance and refurbishment of its existing homes, £150m investment in its ‘safety in the home’ programme and £20m for its regeneration plan.
The rebranding of the housing association will coincide with major changes to its service provision, including a major customer service training programme, a lean transformation programme and a service innovation project.
It will also need to change the branding on 300 vans and 200 uniforms, as well as replace 10,000 signs.
The amalgamation comes after a programme of streamlining at the organisation which has seen the group bring together its financial functions, governance and services.
In 2017, the company set up a single treasury vehicle so all of the partner organisations could borrow money as a group.
In 2018, the organisation’s governance changed to have one coterminous board instead of a number of subsidiary boards. It also carried out a review of the senior management team to give directors group-wide responsibilities.
Mr Rodgers said: “We want to be absolutely clear that local accountability is essential to us and though amalgamating the group would mean the boards of our registered provider entities no longer exist, our local stakeholder boards will allow our customers and other stakeholders to have a direct input into our work.”
WM Housing was formed in 2009 after the merger between West Mercia Homes and Coventry stock transfer group Whitefriars Housing. The group then grew with the addition of Birmingham-based Optima Housing Association in 2012 and the Family Housing Association joined in 2014.
The group has made the following video about the name change and restructure:
