BeST and Westmoreland enter into non-binding partnership with the intent to merge both entities in 2025.
The Boards of Bespoke Supportive Tenancies (BeST) and Westmoreland Supported Housing (WSHL) are pleased to announce that, with effect from 1st February 2024, the two organisations will form a voluntary, non-binding partnership with the aim of undertaking a full merger in due course.
The Boards believe that bringing together the capabilities and scale of both organisations would represent a significant opportunity to improve the customer offering and financial strength of both entities, whilst accelerating their routes to achieving regulatory compliance.
The initial focus of the partnership is to share leadership and expertise in order to drive improvements in performance for both. The organisations will share one appointed Chief Executive – Steve Fensom, the current CEO of Westmoreland.
Jayne Francis-Ward, Chair of Westmoreland commented, “We are immensely proud of Westmoreland’s progress over the past 2-3 years in making our organisation sustainable in the long term and ensuring the quality and safety of our customers’ homes for the duration. Westmoreland is now looking forward to further improvements and growth – and to finally achieve regulatory compliance. The opportunity to create a strategic partnership with BeST, an organisation with a very similar purpose and values to ourselves, allows Westmoreland to accelerate its recovery and to move forward with even greater confidence.”
Tom Miskell, Chair of BeST commented, “BeST is a values-based organisation, proud of its purpose, team and delivery for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. In recent years, despite a number of key improvements, BeST’s performance has not achieved the levels it had aimed for. Partnering with Westmoreland, the appointment of a new CEO and both teams collaborating at multiple levels across each business will provide BeST with the impetus to recover its position, improve its offering to customers and to close the gap to regulatory compliance. Both organisations are very excited to start this new chapter”.
At this time, both organisations remain separate entities, independently regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing.
Further announcements will be made in due course.
BeST is a registered provider of Specialised Supported Housing for vulnerable adults across England & Wales with a head office in Eccles, west Manchester. It manages around 288 properties for 1,500 customers.
WSHL is a registered provider of Specialised Supported Housing for vulnerable adults across England and Wales with a head office in Nottingham. It manages around 136 properties for 560 customers.
