Councils should be “part of the conversation” when housing associations look to merge, the chair of Peabody has said.

CIH reported that:

Lord Bob Kerslake said mergers should also be driven by “fundamentals and not fashion”, at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy housing conference.

“If people are going to merge they’ve got to have good business arguments for why they’re doing it and there’s got to be clear benefits, and local authorities need to be part of that conversation as well,” Lord Kerslake said.

He added that housing is an “amazingly siloed” sector and the “tension” between housing associations and councils over the voluntary Right to Buy deal agreed with the government has “created more of a sense of division”.

He said the two sides should work “really hard” to “build those bridges and deal with issues collectively”.