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Housing associations join forces for new homes

Wednesday, 5 October 2011 3:02 PM

Two housing associations have announced plans for a merger that will have affordable homes across northern England at the top of its agenda.

Harvest Housing group and Arena Housing group will merge in April 2012 to create a new group with 32,000 homes in the North West, Cumbria, Staffordshire and Yorkshire.

The main reason for the move is to harness the financial strength of both associations to maintain and improve services to existing residents while developing new affordable housing.

Harvest and Arena both received all of the grant funding they applied for from the Homes and Communities Agency in 2011 and plan to develop more than 1,300 new homes over the next three years.

Brian Cronin, Arena chief executive and chief executive designate of the new group, said, "Through a merger we will have increased capacity and experience for innovation and new projects. It will give us the capacity to offer enhanced development and support for neighbourhoods, greater efficiency through shared services and the ability to maintain service levels to customers in what is an uncertain economic climate. The merger will also give us greater financial security in the future, helping us to safeguard our services to customers."

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