Trowers & Hamlins

Trowers & Hamlins, the City law firm, has advised Willow Housing & Care on the transfer of its care home portfolio to Methodist Homes Housing Association, in a £9million deal.

Willow Housing & Care is the older persons specialist subsidiary of Network Housing Group, a Registered Social Landlord (RSL). Willow was formed when both Network Housing Association (now Stadium HA) and Brent Council transferred their sheltered housing and residential care homes to it in October 2000.

Trowers & Hamlins says that the deal reflects a trend for RSLs with small care home portfolios to transfer those operations to other larger organisations which specialise in this area.

The transfer includes Willow’s three residential care and nursing homes in the London Borough of Brent, comprising 120 beds plus 17 connected sheltered housing flats. The transfer also includes Stadium HA’s residential care home in the London Borough of Harrow, with 30 beds. All staff and residents were included in the transfer.

The property assets were transferred to Methodist Homes Housing Association, while the business operations and staff have become part of Methodist Homes for the Aged, its specialist care homes division.

Comments Rosemary Hart, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins, “Traditionally, some housing associations have provided a broad variety of additional specialist services to local communities, from care homes to drug rehabilitation facilities. However, since care provision has become so tightly regulated, eating up an increasing amount of management resources for those without the necessary economies of scale, many providers are looking to re-focus on their core housing activities and transfer those services to specialists in that field.”

“The transfer of Willow’s care homes to Methodist Homes reflects its strategy to concentrate specifically on its supported housing operations, including extra care sheltered housing and floating support to older people in the wider community. This will ensure that its residents continue to receive the high standards of services that have been noted in recent Audit Commission and Supporting People inspections and reviews. Willow wanted to ensure the best outcome and a secure future for all the care homes’ residents and staff. This is good news for all concerned and we are delighted to have advised on this transaction.”

“In the future, we can expect to see more housing and care providers re-shaping their portfolios in this way, so as to focus on their core strengths.”