Customer consultation

The merger will involve colleague time and external advisor costs, however you will not incur a direct cost as a result of the merger. Any costs associated will be offset by the benefits of the merger.

The anticipated short-term costs of integration primarily include rebranding, potential systems integration, and alignment of operational processes. These are standard expenses in mergers but are not expected to significantly impact the financial standing of the new organisation.

There will not be a customer vote held for the merger as the final decision is made by the Bromford and Flagship Board and approved by The Regulator of Social Housing.

However, your voice matters, and we will ensure through this consultation that your thoughts and views are taken into consideration by our Board before a final decision is made. You will not be required to sign anything.

If approved, the new group structure, which would be formed as part of the merger, would likely come into effect in Spring 2025.

Merging two strong organisations would give us better opportunities to access funding – an extra £1.9 billion over the next 15 years would be available to us through borrowing. That’s over £100 million invested each year in improving your homes, repairs and customer service, in ensuring existing homes are energy efficient, safe, and warm, and in regeneration and building new homes. It would give us the opportunity to become one of the largest developers of affordable homes in the UK.

We could deliver up to 2,000 homes a year for the next 30 years, half of which will be for social rent, delivering homes for those who need them most.

Bromford Flagship’s increased capacity would also provide the opportunity to create a new Homes, Place and Community Standard. Together, we would be able to focus on the what is needed for our neighbourhoods to be places where people want to live, and where you and your community can thrive.

The two main areas of financial saving both relate to the increased scale of the merged businesses and come from lower funding costs and savings from new-build and existing homes maintenance procurement.

Understandably the work involved in progressing a merger is time consuming and involves lots of our colleagues undertaking this additional work. This can risk other projects being delayed for a short period. However, we can assure you that we will try our best to keep disruption to a bare minimum.

You may have concerns about us becoming a larger landlord. We want to assure you that the merger would not affect our commitment to local accountability either. Our services will continue to be delivered in the same way and we will continue to listen to your views and reflect these in our future plans.

There would be a short-term immediate cost to integration, however this would unlock the ability to access additional spending in the longer term, this far exceeds the cost of integration.

We chose Bromford as a potential merger partner, in part, because they are committed to more locally responsive and accountable services. Newtide, Samphire, Victory and Flagship Homes customers will continue to receive a local service and have a voice on local matters.

The Housing Ombudsman has previously been critical of how other organisations treated customers after the disruption of a merger.

You are at the heart of our decision making. As we continue merger discussions, there will be no changes to the services you receive. The priority for both associations is to deliver great services and homes, and to keep improving this. Whilst we acknowledge there could be a small amount of disruption, we will continue to deliver the services you need throughout the merger process.

The new group structure would be regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing. You would continue to have the right to raise complaints to the Housing Ombudsman and be protected by the standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing.

The three main external advisors that have supported the pre-merger work are:

• Phillip Callan Associates, who are well-regarded advisors in the sector and have advised on the merger,
• Devonshires, who are a well-known legal firm and have provided advice on legal matters, and
• Centrus, who are a well-established treasury advisory and have advised on treasury and funding aspects.

We have also used other specialist advisors where required, for example, ISIO, who are a specialist pensions advisory firm and have provided pensions advice to support the pensions due diligence.

Your landlord would not change.

As a long-term business, we think and act long-term, and our financial planning reflects this. We do long-term planning every year, completing a 30-year business plan, as do all registered Housing Associations, as this is a regulatory requirement.

Your rent or service charge will not change as a direct result of the merger. Your rent and service charge will continue to be reviewed each year in the same way they are now.

The merger will not affect your relationship with us as a customer. The new organisation will continue to honour the terms of your existing tenancy agreement, or lease. Your rights and the terms of your current agreement will remain the same. If you’re a shared ownership or leasehold customer, you will not be affected, and the terms of your lease and your rights will remain the same.

You’ll continue to contact us in the same way. Delivering quality services will continue to be a priority for the new organisation and we only expect you to see improvements in how we respond to repairs.

The merger will give us the opportunity to commit £190 million every year to repairs, maintenance and improvements to our homes, and towards community growth.

Shared owners and leaseholders will remain responsible for repairing and maintaining their homes unless there are agreements already in place for us to carry these out.

You would have the same relationships with the same employees and there are no plans to change this. All telephone numbers would initially remain the same and you would continue to be able to contact us in the same way.

As we introduce improvements in the coming years, this may change, but we would make sure you know about any changes in advance.

There will be no adjustments to salaries of colleagues as a direct result of the proposed merger. 

If you owe us money at the time the proposed merger goes ahead (rent arrears, court costs, money for damage or a rechargeable repair), then these debts would stay with you, and we would still be able to enforce existing court judgements for these arrears. If you have concerns about arrears, then please contact us on 0808 168 4555.

Housing Benefit and Universal Credit claims would remain unchanged. Help and advice would continue to be given to customers or leaseholders about benefit entitlement and support for you if you are experiencing financial difficulties.

If you have the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire your home, you will continue to have that right. It would not be impacted by the merger.