Troubled Shaftesbury to sell 2500 homes, but rejects merger

Shaftesbury Housing Group is to sell about 2500 homes as part of its plan to bounce back from Housing Corporation supervision.

The association has rejected the possibility of merging with another association, as is the case for many associations under supervision.

Interim chief executive James Tickell said Shaftesbury had decided against joining forces with another RSL as this would delay improvements to services.

Instead, the association will restructure into three regions: central, which includes Oxfordshire; the South-west, centred on Salisbury; and London Gateway East, which includes its Kingsmead subsidiary in Hackney, east London.

It will sell about £30m worth of homes that fall outside these areas. Some are non-grant-funded homes to be sold on the open market or to residents; others are social rented homes that will go to local housing associations at their tenanted value.

Tickell said the association currently worked in 87 council areas and wanted to reduce that number to about 40.

“We operate across all of southern England and there are 30 authorities where we have fewer than 50 homes,” he said. “It’s a fairly major rationalisation programme.

“We are going to hand over properties to people who can really provide a better service.”

Tickell said Shaftesbury would sell the social rented homes to other associations in five to 15 lots. He emphasised that there would be no loss of homes to the sector.

It will consult tenants on the plans and begin discussions with other associations next year.

The new regional structure will simplify Shaftesbury’s labyrinthine make-up, which was criticised by the Audit Commission in a report published last November (HT 7 November 2003, page 12). It went under supervision in October 2003.

Ashley Homes, Shaftesbury’s care homes arm, is set to be split from the group, either as an independent body or through a merger.

Tickell said: “The board decided we cannot be good at housing and good at care so it’s better to separate the two businesses.”

Shaftesbury also owns a £900,000 equity stake in ASK, Ashley’s joint-venture company for its private finance initiative care home in Greenwich, south-east London. It could opt to sell the stake when Ashley leaves the group.

Tickell said he hoped a deal to divest Ashley, which has 1400 staff and a turnover of about £30m, could be signed by September next year and implemented by March 2006. He did not know how much the company would cost.

The association advertised this week for a new chief executive and is also looking for replacements for the chair and finance director, who are set to retire. It has created new posts of director of organisational development and a director of property to head the disposals and reinvestment programme.

Tickell said Shaftesbury’s decision to avoid merger could be a lesson to other associations: “Just because you go into supervision, you don’t necessarily have to be taken over.”