Settle and Paradigm merger proposals – update following resident consultation
This Spring, we announced that we are planning to form a partnership with another housing association called Paradigm Housing Group. Paradigm has almost 17,000 homes mainly in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Joining with another organisation in this way is often called a merger. We believe this would allow us to provide better services to residents and invest more in our communities.
We ran a formal six-week consultation with all residents to provide more details about the proposals and letting residents know how they could give us their views. We posted copies of these materials to all residents on the 22nd April and also sent them by email on this date to all those we had email addresses for.
As part of the consultation, residents were asked to let us know their views about this proposal and what they think the priorities should be for the new organisation, if it goes ahead. More than 1,800 Settle residents responded to the consultation survey with 41 residents joining our in-person events and 23 attending our online webinar.
Thank you to everyone who attended these events and gave feedback on the proposals. A summary of this feedback is shared below.
Consultation results
Residents were asked “After reading the information provided, how do you feel about the proposed partnership with Paradigm?” Over half of the residents who responded (56.6%) felt neutral towards the proposal. A similar amount of Settle residents felt either positive about the proposals (21.9%) or negative (21.5%). The response from Paradigm residents was comparable – 50.3% felt neutral towards the proposal, 31.8% were positive and 17.9% negative.
We also asked questions at the start of the questionnaire about residents’ understanding of the proposed partnership, and saw the following results:
- 74% of Settle residents felt that the information we provided was very or mostly clear.
- 71% of Settle residents were clear that there would be no changes to their landlord or services in the near future.
- 66% of Settle residents were clear that they would be consulted again if there are any proposed changes to services as a result of joining with Paradigm.
Priorities for improvements
As part of the consultation, we included a question asking all residents what they thought our priorities for improvement should be. These priorities are broadly similar to those identified by Paradigm residents. As we look ahead to what the potential new organisation would deliver for residents, we would take these priorities for service improvements into account.
- Dealing with home repairs quickly and to a good standard
- Managing and responding to anti-social behaviour
- Updating homes to maintain condition (kitchens, bathrooms, windows)
- Keeping communal areas clean and well maintained
- Making homes affordable to heat
Feedback themes
42% of Settle residents who completed the consultation questionnaire also included notes in response to the question “Do you have any other thoughts you would like to share with us at this time?” These comments are really useful to help us understand how residents are feeling about the proposal.
Residents asked good questions about what this means in the long run, raised concerns about service standards, and shared their hopes that this won’t negatively impact what already works well.
These are the key themes from your feedback where you are seeking reassurance, and the recommendations that we’ll be making to the Settle Board as they consider whether to go ahead with the merger later in the summer.
Key feedback themes from residents and our commitments
Next steps
The results of this consultation, and the consultation with Paradigm residents, will be shared with the Settle and Paradigm Boards for them to consider before any final decision is made. You can read more about what Paradigm residents think of the proposal here.
The Boards will decide later in the summer whether to go ahead. We will send an update directly to all residents with the outcome and any potential next steps.
If the decision is made to go ahead with the merger, the feedback that you have provided through this resident consultation will be used to help shape the new organisation.
