Let us know your final thoughts about the merger
1 April will see the final legal step to merge Sovereign and Network Homes as a single organisation: Sovereign Network Group.
We’ve involved and consulted customers throughout but want to give you another chance to tell us anything else you'd like us to consider as we continue to bring services together. Our survey is open until Sunday 2 February.
Sovereign and Network Homes come together
Sovereign and Network Homes came together on 1 October 2023 into a group structure. Known as SNG - which stands for Sovereign Network Group - this will take the best of both and make an even better organisation. Since merging in October 2023, we’ve been focused on fully integrating both organisations over about 18 months.
The merger doesn't affect your right to live in your home. You’ll still have the same lease or tenancy agreement. There will be little immediate difference for residents: you’ll still contact your landlord the same way and deal with the teams you have before.
In the longer-term though, both housing associations believe that coming together will let us do more for all our customers and residents. As one organisation we’ll be able to invest more into existing homes, into services, into local communities and into building more homes.
Merger information and customer feedback
We’re committed to being open and honest and to strengthening the trust you have in us, so the merger proposal information, and our plans for gathering feedback from you, were checked by a group of residents from both associations and updated from what they said.
We held a feedback exercise on the proposals during June and early July 2023, so the Sovereign and Network Homes Boards could consider your views. This included a survey and two drop in events for customers - you can see a summary of the results here.
Each association also spoke to other groups, such as the financial institutions we have funding agreements with and to its local authority partners.
There wasn’t a formal resident vote but both Boards took the feedback from customers into account before they made their final decisions in September 2023. Read our merger news story.
Below is more information about the merger and, near the bottom of this page, we've included answers to some questions you may have.
We’re confident the merger will deliver benefits to residents and put us in a better position to deliver on our social purpose and priorities.
We want to give our current and future residents better-quality existing homes and build more new homes for thousands of people who still need one.
We want to get the basics right and give you great services and support if you need it. From repairs and safety checks to helping you access any financial assistance you’re due. From training courses which help you get a great job to grants for local groups, so your communities can thrive.
As housing associations, we both face a challenging future (such as rising costs that affect our services and ability to invest in homes) at a time when we’re trying to keep rents affordable for residents. These challenges could last for years. That’s why we believe it’s the right time to merge – and the right merger for both associations.
Together, we’ll be in a better position to get through these challenges. Our bigger size will let us carry on providing locally focused services but make efficiency savings and have better access to new funding.
We can also keep investing in better services and doing more to make homes energy-efficient - so they’re warm, more affordable to run and help fight climate change.
Our ambition for the new organisation is to:
Provide better services for residents
- We can offer new and better digital ways for you to get in touch (and to keep you informed) and provide more accurate, personalised and efficient services.
- We can find new ways to listen and engage with you: building on the best of both groups of engaged residents to make sure more of you can shape what we do.
- We can have the scale to test new approaches in different places and learn from these to the benefit of all residents.
Invest more in improving homes and building new ones
- We can invest even more (£9.2 billion over the next ten years) in improving the quality of existing homes, regenerating estates and building new homes.
- We can build 25,000 new homes over the next decade: that’s 4,000 more as a combined organisation than we could separately.
Invest more in supporting residents and communities
- We’re committed to setting up a Community Foundation to invest £100 million over a ten-year period into our local communities, such as through charitable grants.
We want to merge because we share the same vision. We have a lot in common that will help us work well together, but with the strength and capacity to do more.
We also have some differences where we can complement and learn from each other.
What we’ll be like as Sovereign Network Group
- Strong locally focused customer-facing services
- Creating a Community Foundation investing £100m over the next decade
- Proudly serving around 210,000 residents in over 84,000 homes across the South of England and London
- Financially stronger so we can still be around in the future for our residents and communities
- Savings and efficiencies from combining central teams, that we can invest into services and homes
| A bit about Sovereign | A bit about Network Homes |
|---|---|
| Charitable housing association based in Basingstoke with various regional offices, including in Bristol, Christchurch, Newbury and Exeter. | Charitable housing association based in North-West London with offices in London and Hertford. |
| Set up in 1989 in West Berkshire as one of the first stock transfers from a local authority. Has grown through mergers and a strong building programme. | Set up in 1974 as Brent People’s Housing Association. Has grown through the transfer of council homes, acquiring smaller associations and building new homes. |
| 61,000 affordable homes across south and south-west England. | 21,000 affordable homes across London, south and south-east England. |
| Wide mix of houses and flats for social and affordable rent and shared ownership. Some key worker and private rent homes plus some for outright sale. | Wide mix of houses and flats for social and affordable rent and shared ownership. Some key worker homes and some for outright sale. |
| Built around 1,600 affordable new homes last year. | Built around 220 affordable new homes last year. |
| Invested around £3.7 million into community projects last year. | Invested around £167,000 into communities last year, via a charitable fund. |