Mergers must create significant value for customers to be worth it

It’s not news that the sector is operating in a financially challenging environment while still embracing the increased need to invest more in existing homes, improve energy efficiency, complete fire remediation works and build more homes.

According to the Regulator of Social Housing’s latest Sector Risk Profile, housing associations are spending record amounts on repairs and maintenance, with £50bn of forecasted expenditure over the next five years.

For some housing associations, this is causing difficult decisions on where investment is made or cut.

Abri is not immune to these issues, but scale and efficiency do bring additional resilience, and we’re able to draw on that scale and resilience to deliver on our commitments to customers and better navigate short and long-term risks.

We’re proud to have maintained our strong ratings, alongside significant investment in our existing homes, which has risen to record levels to make homes more energy efficient, lower fuel bills for customers and contribute to our net-zero commitments.

We’re also still able to deliver on our commitment to build 10,000 homes by 2030, supported by our Homes England strategic partnership and joint ventures with key developer partners.

As Abri has grown, we have been alive to the possible risk that larger housing associations may become disconnected from their customers.

We have paired our growth with a commitment to become more, not less, connected to the diverse communities we serve across our geography.

When Silva joined the group, we piloted a new regional model. The results were very encouraging, with significant learning, customer satisfaction gains and some notable operational efficiencies.

This approach now informs our group operating model and will be central to how we integrate Octavia, and to any future growth.

Abri has split its operating area into regions, each informed by customers, colleagues and business intelligence about the specific needs of the area.

Our housing teams work on a local scale, having recently significantly reduced their patch sizes to ensure they’re able to develop better relationships with customers, listen, be more accountable and connect better with community services. Our aim is to ‘make housing officers famous’ within their neighbourhoods.

Customers can also have a say on local operational performance, services and investment through regional customer panels, with their voice feeding directly into Abri’s group board to ensure real customer-led service improvements are made.

Another benefit of scale and financial resilience is the ability to commit to high-value projects. One example is Abri’s regeneration of Sawyers Close, Windsor, to not only replace the existing buildings with new high-quality homes for our customers, but introduce a further 221 new homes.  

No two mergers are the same. We’ve already experienced what we can achieve for our customers and homes when financially robust organisations come together.

This puts us in a strong position to go further and be there to support organisations that are struggling to deliver for their customers; that’s why we agreed to bring Octavia into the group.

Alongside stabilising Octavia’s performance and aligning operational delivery standards to Abri’s, we will deploy the same regional approach to ensure we understand what customers want and need in west London – and deliver it.

An important part of this story is that Abri has a clear plan for ‘how we do mergers’: a plan built on real experience.

That plan is flexible, but it is also efficient and effective.

Not all mergers are good, but good mergers bring real value. And when that value translates into more homes, better services and long-term financial stability, well, in those circumstances they are absolutely worth the energy and commitment to make them work!

Caroline Moore, chief financial officer, Abri