Great Places Housing Group Limited Transfer of Engagements of Equity to Great Places (3103I)
01 Aprile 2020 - 10:31AM
UK Regulatory
TIDM15HG
RNS Number : 3103I
Great Places Housing Group Limited
01 April 2020
Great Places Housing Group Limited (the Issuer)
GBP345,000,000 4.75 per cent Secured Bonds due 2042 (ISIN
Numbers XS1794197852 and XS0842152281)
1 April 2020
On Wednesday 1(st) April, The Financial Conduct Authority
confirmed approval of the Transfer of Engagements of Equity Housing
Group Limited (Equity) (registered as a charitable community
benefit society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit
Societies Act 2014 with registered number 16551R and registered as
a registered provider with the Regulator of Social Housing with
registered number L1229) to Great Places Housing Association (GPHA)
(registered as a charitable community benefit society under the
Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 with
registered number 19564R and registered as a registered provider
with the Regulator with registered number L1230), pursuant to
section 110 of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act
2014. GPHA is the largest subsidiary of Great Places Housing Group
Limited "The Issuer" (Great Places).
This marked the completion of a process which commenced in early
2019 when Equity announced it would be seeking a long term
strategic partner. Great Places was selected as preferred partner
in May 2019 and since that date both parties have been working
towards the objective of a 1(st) April 2020 Transfer of
Engagements. The required funding consents have been successfully
negotiated and the Boards of both Organisations gave their final
approvals in March.
Great Places will subsequently own or manage over 24,000 homes
across the North West and South Yorkshire, with turnover in excess
of GBP150M, housing assets of over GBP1.5BN and more than 700
colleagues. The merger reinforces Great Places' geographical focus
around Greater Manchester, Cheshire and South Yorkshire, and the
larger Organisation will be financially stronger with greater
influence and have increased operational resilience which is
particularly of importance given the backdrop of the Coronavirus
pandemic.
Two members of the former Equity Board have joined the Great
Places Board - Mervyn Jones (former CEO of Yorkshire Housing
2008-2018) and Grenville Page (who has a portfolio of Non-Executive
roles including with Manchester Health and Care Commissioning).
Andy Oldale, who was Deputy CEO and Strategic Director -
Corporate Services for Equity has joined the Great Places Executive
Team in the role of Transitional Managing Director.
The successful completion of the merger has been achieved
despite the challenges presented by Coronavirus. Great Places is
responding to the pandemic in a number of ways:
The safety of our colleagues and customers remains our highest
priority and in order to continue to run essential services we have
had to quickly adapt how we work. The majority of our colleagues
are now working from home, with a limited number of colleagues
continuing with their essential front-line roles. We have
introduced a number of changes to working practices to ensure that
they can comply with social distancing measures.
Our business continuity group is overseeing our response and
taking decisions to ensure we are best placed to respond
appropriately and quickly to this fast-moving situation. We are
keeping our service provision under review and responding quickly
to Government guidance while remaining committed to delivering
essential services to our customers, carrying out business-critical
work and maintaining health and safety standards.
We have implemented a range of actions to support our customers
and protect our colleagues while they continue to carry out their
roles including:
-- setting up our customer contact team to be able to work from
home and closing all of our offices in line with Government
guidance;
-- providing an essential only repairs service, introducing
customer screening checks and issuing front-line colleagues with
the appropriate personal protective equipment;
-- empowering our neighbourhood teams to extend our usual
sympathetic and measured approach to arrears, and to offer
additional support to customers who are struggling to pay their
rent as a result of financial hardship due to the impact of
Coronavirus;
-- in line with Government guidance we have suspended legal action for arrears at this time;
-- launching a GBP100,000 hardship fund that will allow those
customers most in need to access vouchers to purchase food and pay
their energy bills;
-- actively promoting the Government's emergency financial
support and supporting customers to access it;
-- working closely with Local Authority partners and third
sector stakeholders to support local food networks and responses to
rough sleeping;
-- continuing caretaking services in our independence and
wellbeing schemes in order to ensure we maintain health and safety
compliance, and also increasing our cleaning schedules;
-- continuing to support, with appropriate social distancing, a
number of relets for customers where not completing their move
would have caused them hardship;
-- developing a remote handover process that has facilitated
completion of small number of new lets and shared ownership sales
to ensure those new properties can be let or sold to those most in
housing need;
-- streamlining financial processes to ensure our suppliers are
paid as fast as possible for the goods and services they
provide;
-- launching an internal volunteering programme, offering
colleagues who have some additional capacity to support areas of
the business who may be impacted by less colleague resource due to
health conditions, sickness and additional demand.
It is too early to assess the potential impact on Great Places'
future financial performance. We are carefully modelling the
possible impact on key business activities such as rent collection
and arrears, property sales and development activity. The majority
of our development programme and investment works are currently
suspended which will help support an already strong liquidity
position. Great Places has always sought to avoid being
over-dependent on cash generated from property sales which provides
further comfort during what may be an extended period of
uncertainty.
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END
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