Ealing Housing Associations

By eric leach

Housing Associations (HAs) came into being in the second half of the 19th century. Their aim was to make accommodation available and affordable for all. The focus was on housing the needy. Early examples are the Peabody Trust (1862) and Guinness Trust (1890). HAs were originally philanthropic and voluntary organisations. HAs were property developers and managers. There are 1,500 HAs in the UK, providing some two million homes for five million residents.

After The Housing Acts of 1985 and 1988 HAs began to take over Local Authority roles of building, maintaining and managing what was called ‘Council Housing’. HAs are regulated by Government but don’t seem to be accountable to anyone. They receive £millions of capital grant funding from the Government to build social housing.

How different HAs are now from their original 19th century incarnations. In many ways the larger HAs are no different from private builders of housing like Barratt’s, Berkeley Group or Persimmon. As well as building some Social Homes for Rent, they build Shared Ownership and Market Sale properties. They occupy expensive offices and pay their managers and directors extremely generously. Many of the large HAs have grown through acquisitions and mergers. Within their complex structures there are a range of business models. These include Industrial and Provident Societies, Trusts and Co-operatives. HAs active in Ealing include A2Dominion, Catalyst Housing, Clarion Housing, Metropolitan Thames Valley, Notting Hill Genesis, Network Homes and Peabody Trust. These are some of the biggest HAs in London. In this article we look a little more closely at the activities of four of these HAs in Ealing.

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A2Dominion

The company builds, maintains, sells and manages housing units in Greater London and south east England. In 1947 British Airways Staff Housing Society (BASHS) was formed. MPs Kenneth Baker and George Young set up Acton Housing Association (AHA) in the 1960s. Bakers House in The Grove W5 was AHA’s first social housing scheme in Ealing. In 2001 AHA merged with Cherwell Housing Trust to form Dominion Housing Group (DHG). In 2008 AHA, BASHS, DHG and some other HAs merged to form A2Dominion. Originally the company was a registered Charity and subject to scrutiny by The Charity Commission. Some years ago now the bosses decided to end the Charitable status and like many HAs it is now not subject to scrutiny by anyone.

The company is involved in a range of private renting and private ownership offerings. It manages 38,000 housing units. It has a major development and housing management operation underway at Green Man Lane (GML) in West Ealing centre. The GML development process began in 2007. A2Dominion and builders Rydon were chosen in 2009 and demolition started in 2011. 464 Social Rent Council homes are being replaced by 714 mixed tenure units. 95 single bed Social Rent tenants were not offered new accommodation on site. 376 of the new flats will be private sale/Shared Ownership. The new Social Homes for Rent already built are very densely packed together. A gym, Enterprise Units, an expensive public work of art and a community café were all promised. Only the café was delivered and this failed in 2019 and currently lies empty. A Community Centre was promised in 2010 but this has yet to be built. It will probably be 2023 before the development is completed.

A2Dominion sites in Ealing recently demolished/cleared are the old Wickes site on Boston Road, Hanwell and the iconic art deco Woolworths building in Broadway West Ealing. The former will provide up to 340 new housing units (65% for private sale), and the latter 120 units (65% private sale).

In 2018/19 the turnover of the company was £372.3 million. The net ‘surplus’ (i.e. profit) was £23.9 million. It had an asset base of over £9 billion and 7,601 new housing units in development. The boss earned at least £290,000/ year and 32 other executives earned at least £100,000/year.

Catalyst Housing

Catalyst Housing was formed by merger in 2019. Its antecedents were Kensington Housing Trust (1926), Ealing Family HA (1963), Northcote HA (1980) and Aldwyck Housing Group. It builds and manages housing units, with 21,000 homes under management. It offers Social and Affordable Rent properties.

The company has 4,540 housing units under management in Ealing and it operates 16 Sheltered Housing facilities. Four of these sheltered homes are in Ealing - Antilles House (Acton), Hopley House, Hugh Clark House and O’Grady Court. The latter three are in West Ealing centre. It has major residential developments in Ealing including the South Acton Estate (922 new units), St Bernard Gate, Southall (307) and Havelock Estate, Southall (922). Its newest development will be Friary Park in Acton, with 990 new housing units. Catalyst’s support for the local community includes providing a peppercorn rent for the Welshore Community Hub on Broadway, West Ealing. In 2018/19 it paid out £95,582 in grants. Catalyst’s turnover in 2018/19 was £180.1 million and its surplus was £330 million. Board members were collectively rewarded with £97,000 and 15 executives earned at least £100,000/year.

Metropolitan Thames Valley (MTV)

MTV provides affordable housing in London, the South East, East Midlands and East England. It manages 57,000 homes. Its early history features the Metropolitan Coloured People’s HA (1957) and Thames Valley Housing. Thames Valley HA and the Metropolitan Housing Trust merged in October 2018 to form MTV. It’s made up of 39 individual companies. It is developing two new residential sites in Ealing. In Hastings Road, West Ealing MTV plan to build 19 and 13 storey residential towers containing 144 housing units. Dubbed ‘55West’ MTV is partnering again with Southern Grove, allegedly providing affordable homes. Local activists say only those with household incomes of £60,000/year will be able to afford them. Astonishingly the Stop the Towers group has inspired over 2,300 formal objections to the plans.

In 2018/19 MTV’s turnover was £411 million and it had an Operating Surplus of £149 million. It had 1,037 new housing unit completions - 346 for rent, 572 shared Ownership and 119 private sale. In 2018/19, 33 of its executives earned at least £100,000/year.

Clarion Housing

MTV, along with the property company Southern Grove, is building a residential tower block The Appleton on the old BHS building in Broadway, West Ealing. A very dense 11 storey block of 136 flats is being built on a small footprint. Originally offering a mix of tenures, it’s now primarily trying to sell 100 Shared Ownership flats, but is obviously struggling as it’s offering 6 months rent free! The other 36 flats are available at ‘affordable’ rents. The building should be completed by 2021, Covid-19 willing. Clarion Housing is the UK’s largest HA managing 125,000 dwellings. It works across over 150 Local Authorities and provides homes for 350,000 people. Clarion was formed through the merger of Affinity Sutton and Circle Housing in 2016. Affinity Sutton began work in West Ealing in 2013 with the redevelopment of the Dean Gardens Estate. Now as Clarion it is building the new Sherwood Close Estate. All existing 2013 Ealing Council tenants have been offered new tenancies in the new development. Of the 292 new flats to be built just 71 were delivered in 2109. Sadly there were plenty of building faults notified to Clarion by the residents’ group and by September 2020 these have still all not been corrected.

In Southall, Clarion got planning permission in 2017 to build 225 Shared Accommodation flats on the Malgavita site on Merrick Road. Called Junction West it comprises towers up to 18 storeys.

In 2019/20 Clarion had a turnover of £841.5 million and made a profit/surplus of £168.4 million. It employed 3,573 Full Time Equivalent employees. Clarion had 59 executives who earned over £100,000/year.