Mergers and local communities
Karen Cooper reflects on the recent merger between Bexley Community Housing Association and Penge Churches Housing Association and what it means for the organisations’ staff and residents going forward
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GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT & REGENERATION
Image: Istock
Karen Cooper
CEO, Penge Churches Housing Association (PCHA)
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Greg Campbell
Partner, Campbell Tickell
Issue 66 | June 2023
Campbell Tickell recently supported a merger between Bexley Community Housing Association (BECHA) and Penge Churches Housing Association (PCHA). BECHA has transferred 134 homes to PCHA, which now manages more than 400 homes in the London boroughs of Bromley and Bexley. Greg Campbell, Partner at Campbell Tickell, asks PCHA’s CEO, Karen Cooper, about what the merger means for PCHA, its residents and local communities as well as any potential challenges.
What drove this merger?
PCHA was established in 1969 and owned around 270 general needs homes in the London Borough of Bromley. BECHA was formed in 1965 and owned around 134 homes located in the neighbouring borough of Bexley. Both organisations had a similar history and legacy and had worked together as peers for many years. With similar stock profiles, a shared ethos and values and a strong focus on residents, we were natural partners.
In early 2022 BECHA considered its future as an independent housing association. This took into account a range of factors, including the future costs of maintaining high-quality housing and management services, as well as the lack of financial or organisational capacity to withstand future unforeseen challenges. As a result, the BECHA board engaged Campbell Tickell to carry out an options review and considered the full range of strategic options, from continuing as is, to a transfer of engagements. It concluded, taking into account the factors above, that it would not be able to remain as an independent, autonomous housing association in the long term. The BECHA board formally resolved to seek a partner association to take forward its work and, after a beauty contest, selected PCHA as its preferred partner.
For both parties this was a meeting of hearts and minds and provided a genuine opportunity for us to safeguard the interests of all our residents into the future.
What difference will the merger make for residents of the two associations?
This merger was largely driven by the desire to improve services to residents across both organisations and it has undoubtedly created additional resources to invest in our homes and services. The merger has allowed us to restructure the organisation to strengthen our frontline services for residents so we can deliver a more proactive and holistic service to residents across the both boroughs. We have created two new roles, Head of Customer Services and Head of Property Services, to help drive up performance and increase resident satisfaction – these roles would simply not have been affordable beforehand. Additionally, we are confident residents will benefit from more accessible services and increased resident and community engagement.
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The team hand-deliver new resident handbooks and goody bags to Bexley residents in the first week of the merger
“This merger was largely driven by the desire to improve services to residents across both organisations and it has undoubtedly created additional resources to invest in our homes and services.”
What does the merger mean for PCHA’s capacity and future ambitions?
As a combined organisation, PCHA has a stronger financial business plan to invest in existing homes and services and, importantly, for the future development of new homes. The business plan for PCHA is far stronger as a result of the transfer of engagements. This has put us in a strong position to respond to the new and challenging regulatory and legislative environment.
Immediately on transfer we commissioned a full stock condition survey and a resident satisfaction survey (linked to the regulator’s Tenant Satisfaction Measures) so that we can establish a clear baseline and plan for the future. We are not naïve about the challenges ahead, but we are clear that the merger has allowed us to be in the best place to tackle these and protect our 403 homes and families
What challenges do you envisage integrating the two organisations (e.g. cultural differences), and how will you seek to overcome these?
It was vital that the combined organisation could deliver appropriate services from the first day of operation. To this end, extensive resources were committed to deliver an effective transition plan in the three months prior to merger. The transitional arrangements were aided by the decision to use PCHA’s systems and to transfer data, rather than try to integrate both organisations’ existing systems. In this respect, we provided extensive training opportunities for the BECHA staff to familiarise themselves with PCHA’s systems prior to going live.
Most importantly, we started work on merging the organisational cultures by bringing both teams together pre-merger and developing a training plan to embed PCHA's culture and approach. I always talk about the team being on the PCHA ‘bus’ as a way of embedding the organisational culture, including our vision and values, to ensure the team know what direction we are heading in and what part they play in reaching our destination. To celebrate the merger we have a literal bus as a reminder!
Two months in and the transition has been pretty smooth so far. Inevitably, there will be teething problems and other challenges along the way, but we have a clear integration plan which we are working towards and feel prepared to deal with whatever lies ahead.
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Is there a danger that local focus and community engagement may be dissipated?
No absolutely not, in fact the intention is that this is strengthened rather than weakened with additional resources focused on resident engagement. Both organisations have a strong community focus and we have retained offices in both boroughs to ensure we have a strong presence and high levels of visibility to the community. We are currently taking on a new office in Bexley which can facilitate resident events and training sessions to ensure we can maintain and enhance the relationship with our residents in both boroughs.
“Both organisations have a strong community focus and we have retained offices in both boroughs to ensure we have a strong presence and high levels of visibility.”
How will you work together with the two local authorities to meet the needs of residents and local communities?
We have kept all our local stakeholders – including councillors and MPs – fully informed throughout the process and this was absolutely critical. We are due to hold a couple of stakeholder events to celebrate the merger where both boroughs will be invited to come and hear about our plans going forward. One of my first contacts was with the London Borough of Bexley and over the last few months we have had several very positive meetings with them about the future, including discussions about some possible schemes for development in the borough, which is extremely positive.