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Places for People gets green light from shareholders to take on non-compliant landlord
Places for People’s plans to take on a non-compliant landlord has moved a step closer after shareholders approved the tie-up.
The 240,000-home association said that London-based Origin Housing is on track to become a subsidiary this spring as a result of the approval gained on Thursday.
The sign-off came after a consultation with Origin’s residents and recommendations from the 7,700-home landlord’s board, Places for People said.
The merger was first announced last October.
Two months later, Origin was downgraded to non-compliant ratings of G3/V3 by the English regulator, partly over “inadequate resourcing and data errors” in its financial reporting.
In its last full-year to March 2023, the landlord reported a deficit of £1.6m.
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However, this was an improvement on the year before when Origin posted a deficit of £21.3m.
It is understood that Places for People is liaising with the Regulator of Social Housing over the merger, but does not require its approval.
The giant landlord has promised to spend £100m on Origin’s homes over the first 10 years.
For residents, it said tenancies will be “unimpacted”, with services to be delivered by existing staff from Origin’s current offices.
Carol Carter, chief executive of Origin, said: “The merger will be hugely beneficial for our residents, staff and the communities we serve.
“Crucially, it means more investment in our homes and improved local services, as well as the retention of all of our hard-working staff who know the communities and people in them better than anyone.”
Greg Reed, chief executive of Places for People, added: “This really is a merger that works for and benefits absolutely everyone.”
Another non-compliant London landlord, Octavia Housing, is also in merger talks with 50,000-home Abri. Octavia was handed grades of G3/V3 in September and the proposed tie-up was announced 10 weeks later.
The other big merger news this week came as Barratt, the UK’s biggest house builder, agreed a £2.5bn deal to buy its rival Redrow.
In a stock market announcement, the companies said their boards have reached agreement on terms of an all-share offer from Barratt.
The combined group will be known as Barratt Redrow. It will have capacity to build “in excess” of 22,000 homes a year and is expected bring in annual revenues of around £7.5bn, the filing said.
The listed firms said the tie-up will bring together their “highly complementary geographic footprints” and “accelerate the delivery” of new homes.
Update at 1pm 9 Feb 2023:
An earlier version of this story, based on information from Places for People, stated that the merger with Origin required approval from the Regulator of Social Housing. However Places for People has since corrected this to say it does not require approval.
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