Breaking: Large housing association to sell offsite business
GSA will close LoCaL Homes factory if buyer not found
Housing association GreenSquareAccord (GSA) has announced it wants to sell, or close, its loss-making timber-frame business.
The 25,000-home group is aiming to offload LoCaL Homes as part of a move to “simplify and strengthen” its focus on being a social landlord.
GSA said it is in “active discussions” with interested parties about a sale.
However, if a buyer cannot be found the offsite firm’s factory will close next spring, GSA said.
It comes as GSA this month reported an annual group deficit of £13.6m in its last financial year.
LoCaL Homes, whose full name is LowCarbonLiving Homes, is a commercial subsidiary of GSA which builds timber-framed homes from a factory in Walsall.
The homes produced are sold to GSA as well as other housing associations. On LoCaL Homes’ website, among its listed partners are the UK’s biggest housing association Clarion, and Platform Housing Group.
Mona Shah, GSA’s chief finance and investment officer, said LoCaL Homes had made an “important and innovative contribution to housebuilding in the UK”.
But she added:
“The landscape has changed significantly and while it has been a difficult decision to exit, it is a necessary one.”
In its last reported full-year to the end of March 2024, LoCaL Homes recorded a loss of £390,000 on turnover of £5.8m, according to accounts filed at Companies House. The year before the business made a loss of £153,000 on revenue of £3.3m.
Shah, who joined GSA in May, added: “We have a strategic objective to simplify and strengthen our organisation to enable us to focus on our core offer and to realise our vision of being a great social landlord.
“We are in active discussions with interested parties and remain hopeful of finding a buyer.”
In its statement, GSA concluded: “Having made the decision to exit LoCaL Homes, this cannot continue indefinitely and if we are unable to do so, we will close the factory in spring 2026.”
LoCaL Homes was signed up to a string of frameworks, including LHC Procurement Group’s MMC (NH3) framework. It was also appointed to the Offsite Homes Alliance’s £2bn modular framework in 2023.
GSA said all LoCaL Homes’ staff and customers had been informed of the plans. “Our focus in the coming weeks and months will be on supporting them as we continue our search for a buyer,” it added.
The offsite business had 24 full-time staff at the time of its last filed accounts.
Earlier this year, Modular Monitor exclusively revealed that FTSE100 house builder Berkeley was selling its modular factory. Goldman Sachs-backed TopHat revealed a year ago it was also exiting the volumetric modular sector.
I’m James Wilmore, a freelance journalist and editor who covers the built environment. This is me here and here
For all enquiries, story ideas and tips, please email: james@modularmonitor.co.uk
