Best of Both

Talks on creating a new joint force for housing in Staffordshire

The boards of Housing Plus and Stafford and Rural Homes are in talks about working together in a new group to benefit customers and the wider community by delivering ‘the best of both’.

 The planned new group would be a much larger locally-based housing provider, managing more than 12,000 homes and employing in excess of 500 people.

Staffordand Rural Homes and Housing Plus are financially strong, high performing businesses that decided to look at a partnership of choice, building on existing successful collaboration. By working together in a new group, both organisations would retain their respective roles as local landlords but would also be able to build more homes, strengthen services, be more efficient and deal with future challenges better than they could alone. 

No decision will be made without both organisations consulting with customers, staff, partners and other stakeholders to assess the implications and potential benefits to existing and future residents and communities. This consultation is now underway.

To request further information about ‘Best of Both’ please e-mail bestofboth@sarh.co.uk

Notes

1          Housing Plus and Stafford and Rural Homes are forward-thinking social businesses, providing homes and community services in neighbouring parts of central and South Staffordshire. For more details, please see www.housing-plus.co.uk and www.sarh.co.uk

2          Any decision to form a new group would be subject to approval by the social housing regulator, the Homes and Communities Agency.

3          If the group went ahead, Stafford and Rural Homes and Housing Plus’s landlord subsidiary, South Staffordshire Housing Association (SSHA), would continue to own and manage their own homes as they do now. Customers would keep the same landlords and their rights and rents would not be affected.