Notting Hill Housing residents meet tonight over merger plans

Huge turnout at Genesis/Notting Hill HA merger tenants' meeting

Genesis marketing of Brent House

I hear that there was a great turnout at yesterday's meeting about the proposed merger of Genesis and Notting Hill Housing associations with the church venue unable to hold all the tenants and leaseholders wishing to attend.

There was vociferous opposition to the merger plans with many seeing this as a turn away from a social enterprise model towards a profit-making business model which would result in property sales, higher rents, lack of security and building for market rather than affordable prices.

In a vote at the end of the meeting there were more than 100 votes against the merger and none for.

I hope to carry more detailed information later.

See more about the Notting Hill Housing chief's 'embrace of the market' HERE

Statement on the merger by Genesis and Notting Hill Housing (July 20th)

Notting Hill Housing and Genesis Housing Association have agreed in principle to merge, a move that would create one of the country's largest housing associations.

The boards of both organisations agreed the merger proposal yesterday (Wednesday 19 July), which they felt was the best decision for both businesses, their residents, their shareholders and for London and the South East.

The new organisation, Notting Hill Genesis, will have 54,000 homes across London and 64,000 across London and the South East, half of which will be general needs homes with social or affordable rents.

The new organisation will serve a total of 170,000 residents and be the largest provider of shared ownership tenure in the country.

Financially, this merger will bring together two substantial organisations to make a new and stronger entity. We have combined reserves of £3.1 billion and loan facilities of £3.5 billion. We are generating turnover of about £700m and a net surplus of more than £120 million. This financial strength will enable the delivery of around 2,700 new homes a year, 400 more than would be achievable separately.

Both organisations believe passionately that their shared heritage makes this a good match. Both Notting Hill Housing and Genesis Housing were founded in different forms during the 1960s by people of faith in west London, with the aim of housing the working poor and giving them a secure home with which to build their future.

While both evolved over time, building significant commercial interests and merging with others, the core purpose remains unchanged: to provide quality homes to low income households across London and beyond.

Dipesh J. Shah OBE, from Genesis, is Chair Designate of the new organisation. Paul Hodgkinson, from Notting Hill Housing, had recently extended his term of office to oversee the transition to merger, but never intended to remain past that point.

Kate Davies from Notting Hill Housing has been named Chief Executive Designate, with Elizabeth Froude, currently Genesis Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Resources, being appointed Deputy Chief Executive Designate.

Notting Hill Genesis Chair Designate, Dipesh Shah, said: “Uniting two associations with a common culture, a common vision and an aspiration to enrich their social purpose augurs well for the future of the merged entity. I look forward very much to being part of it and to helping the new organisation on its journey.”

Kate Davies, Chief Executive Designate, said: “Bringing together two housing associations with similar backgrounds, shared values and a strong social purpose will allow us to provide more of the homes London needs, for those who most need them.

“This is an exciting challenge for all of us and I’m very much looking forward to leading this new organisation, which has the will and resources to be even more innovative, ambitious and influential together than we could separately.”

In line with the commitment to a merger of equals, Neil Hadden decided not to apply for the role of Chief Executive (Designate) of Notting Hill Genesis, due to the fact that Dipesh was appointed Chair (Designate).  Neil will remain as Genesis Chief Executive until the merger is complete in early 2018.

Genesis Chief Executive Neil Hadden added: “I have always believed that there should be more consolidation within the sector so that our capacity can be utilised better to provide more homes and improved services for our customers. To that end, this merger makes complete sense and I am pleased to have been involved in getting it off the ground. I look forward to continuing to lead Genesis until the merger is complete in early 2018.”

Deputy Chief Executive Designate, Elizabeth Froude, said: "I am very pleased to be taking up this role in what will be a fantastic organisation, built on the legacy of two housing associations with deep and common roots and purpose. We will take the best of both to allow us to continue to deliver a good service to our many and diverse customer groups, in the ever complex environment in which we operate.

"I believe this merger will bring us the resilience to be innovative in how we adapt our services to meet the demands of our current and future customers."

It is time for Genesis Housing Association residents to get organised!

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 From Genisis Residents

Why? Actually it is pretty straightforward.

The board and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) have been campaigning to ‘de-regulate’ or ‘de-register’ Genesis. Meaning they want to get out of most of government control or become private completely.

Do you remember the mutual building societies which went private about twenty years ago? The same kind of thing. They all ended up in the hands of banks.

In addition Genesis now clearly have a policy of raising rents so they can obtain more loans on the private money markets to build out-of-reach homes. In one recent case Genesis has asked the rent officer for an over 90% rent increase for a secure tenant. Hopefully the Rent Officer will not give in - but there is no guarantee.

Recently Genesis advertised a home for sale for £1,000,000. And another one bedroomed home was offered at a rent of £1,950 per month. I don’t suppose there are many readers who can pay that kind of rent.

The CEO publicly announced back in 2015 that Genesis would not build any good quality low rent houses. He said: “That won’t be my problem.”

He also explained how he looked at the homes of the residents: ‘[We are] really looking at our asset base and seeing what the value of that is and how we can get our hands on that value, (our emphasis) by changing its tenure, by churning it, by selling it and using those proceeds to build more homes.’

Nice! These are our homes he is talking about.

So residents have a fight on their hands and we have created a new residents organisations called ‘Genesis Residents.’

The next meeting for residents is in Harlesden on Thursday 16th February from 6:30.

It will be held in the Harlesden Methodist Church, 25 High Street, Harlesden, NW10 4NE

All the details can be found on our Facebook Page or you can e mail us at the address below

https://www.facebook.com/genesisaction

genesis.residents.action@gmail.com

Hopefully we will see you there.

Brent House sold to Genesis Housing for £76 million

Brent House last week

Proposed development

Locals have noticed some work going on at Brent House, High Road, Wembley, recently. The office blocks were sold to Henley Homes by Brent Council for around £10 million in 2014 LINK

Yesterday Henley Homes announced that they had completed sale of the site, to include construction of 248 apartments and c6,000 square feet of retail space, to Genesis Housing. 30% of the apartments will be 'affordable' (up to 80% of market rents?)

Construction will be by Reis Construct, the construction arm of Henley Homes.

The blocks will be 7-10 storeys high, considerably lower than other recent planning applications in the area.  There will be further development of the High Road to the north on the Ark Elvin High School  frontage as well as the rebuild of the secondary school itself and the extension of Elsley Primary School currently under way.

The new blocks with Ark Elvin (formerly Copland) High Schoolon the right

Some of the property press have mistakely reported the sale as that of Brent Town Hall, which is of course now the Lycee International de Londres Winston Churchill.

The full extent of the new build (High Road at top of the picture) can be seen in this architect's drawing:

More details on the architect's website HERE

Demolition and build will start in the new year.

Jeremy Stibbe, Genesis Housing Association Executive Director of Assets and Investment said:

  We’re delighted that works for this exciting project will soon be getting underway and look forward to working closely with Henley Homes as the plans take shape. 

The new properties built at Brent House will play a key role in helping Genesis deliver on our ambitions to invest in 1,000 homes a year.  Genesis is the largest housing association landlord in Brent so we will be channelling this experience into creating a vibrant new mixed tenure community delivering affordability and opportunity for customers at the heart of the borough.