Riverside Housing in ‘partnership’ talks with One Housing Group
OHG raise possibility of job cuts
Riverside Housing announced this morning that it has agreed to work on “coming together in partnership” with One Housing Group (OHG) later this year. The prospect of a merger will come as a shock to staff at One Housing and Unite will be supporting members through the process.
There have been serious concerns about the finances and governance of One Housing Group for some time, so this news not come out of the blue. However, the possibility of job cuts and redundancies has been raised by OHG, any threat of compulsory redundnacies will be vigorously opposed by Unite. Unite is clear that front line staff who have been working to maintain services through the pandemic are not responsible for poor management and therefore must not be made to pay for it.
Strained relations
OHG’s relations with residents have been strained for an extended period. Unite will continue to work closely with a number of resident groups around issues of shared concern and we would urge that they are fully consulted.
It is widely thought that there will be a further round of financially driven mergers of housing associations resulting in in fewer but bigger organisations. Housing associations are already facing increasing questions about their funding and accountability, such questions will only increase with this process. The need for publicly funded and democratically accountable housing has never been clearer.
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The public statement from Riverside states “The board of The Riverside Group Limited, parent to Riverside Finance plc, and the board of One Housing Group Limited, have agreed to work on coming together in partnership later in 2021, following receipt in due course of all of the required consents and approvals. The current intention is that One Housing Group Limited (and its subsidiaries) will initially join Riverside as a subsidiary of The Riverside Group Limited.”
Changes such as these cause huge anxiety amongst staff. That is why it is essential for any member of staff not currently a member of a trade union to join Unite here: https://join.unitetheunion.org/
Unite enjoys recognition in both Riverside and OHG and will play a major role in shaping its future employee relations. Unite will be holding a series of meetings over the next few weeks answer members concerns and to send a clear message to the new management that job security and workers safety should be the absolute priorities of the new organisation.
Earlier reports on One Housing Group
OHG 'spin masters' here
OHG as 'industry disrupter' here