Genesis will build affordable rent post-merger

This is despite Neil Hadden, chief executive of Genesis, saying he planned to axe all cheap rented homes from future building plans in July.

In a joint statement on Monday, Genesis and Thames Valley announced plans to form a new 47,000-home organisation which will build 3,000 homes per year, including 1,800 affordable properties.

Geeta Nanda, chief executive of Thames Valley, said 600 of the affordable properties would be for affordable rent.

The remaining 1,200 properties will be mainly for subsidised ownership although other products such as intermediate rent could be included.

The boards of the two organisations have approved an outline case for the deal which would create the 10th largest housing association in England.

Ms Nanda said the merged association would be able to build twice as many affordable rented homes per year as the two organisations could separately.

In an interview with Inside Housing in July, Mr Hadden said his organisation planned a “50/50 split between intermediate tenures, such as shared ownership and market rent stroke outright sale”.

He added: “We’ve been having discussions in the light of the budget and we really think that the affordable rent element has gone… I also happen to believe that this government is not particularly interested in us producing affordable rented accommodation.”

But yesterday Mr Hadden said the merged organisation would provide a third of its affordable homes at subsidised rent at an unspecified rate.

Ms Nanda said: “All through those discussions Genesis was clear it wanted to keep providing homes for rent.”

They will produce a full business case which will be examined by both associations’ boards within the next three months.

Both Ms Nanda and Mr Hadden said the chief executive of the merged organisation would be chosen at a later date.