Nine social landlords in Merseyside have joined forces in a two-pronged effort to tackle skilled labour shortages and coordinate the regeneration of the area.
Knowsley and St Helens councils have signed a "partnering charter", known as Fusion 21, with seven leading housing associations. The aim is to harness the spending power of the associations' collective maintenance budgets.

The seven housing associations are Arena Housing, CDS Housing, Helena Housing, Knowsley Housing Trust, Maritime Housing, Riverside Housing and South Liverpool Housing.

Together, their maintenance budgets amount to around £1bn over the next eight years. This money will be used to save on procurement costs through economies of scale, and to build up long-term partnerships with approved contractors.

Fusion 21 steering group chair Graham Smith said contractors would benefit financially from the long-term projects involved in the regeneration of Merseyside but that this in turn would create a demand for skills.

In response, the partnership will coordinate a training programme across colleges, job centres, training centres and employment agencies.

It is hoped the programme will create a supply of people with the skills needed for the associations' development and improvement projects, who would be ready to work straight away.

"For the first time, we have developed a vision that will use the significant investment in repair and maintenance contracts to deliver benefits to local unemployed people," said Smith.

A £100,000 development grant from the Housing Corporation helped to set up Fusion 21.

The partnership has secured a further £1m for its first year of activity from the European Social Fund and the government's funding organisation, Ambition Construction.

It is hoped the partnership will become self-funding after that.

Source

Housing Today