Jobs under threat as housing trust looks to centralise

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities

A housing trust's plans to centralise back office staff positions could lead to job losses.

As many as 49 jobs could go when New Linx Housing Trust moves its finance and HR departments to recently purchased premises in Solihull.

The Trust, which operates under parent company Waterloo Housing Group, has confirmed that almost 150 frontline staff will continue to work at Keily House in Louth or work from home.

Waterloo's chief executive, David Pickering, said: "Waterloo needs to be ready for changes such as welfare reform - which will have a significant impact on associations such as ours and many of our customers from April 2013.

"We have gone a long way in recent years in achieving greater consistency in service delivery for customers, and we feel that it is now the right time to bring all of our ‘back office’ functions together in one location to provide consistent support to the front line services to customers.

"As a result, we have now purchased office premises in the heart of the Midlands to serve as our new Business Centre.

"Indeed over the coming year we plan to build 311 affordable rented and low cost ownership homes in Lincolnshire, and between 2011 and 2015 will in fact be building in total over 630 homes in the area, which is 40 percent of our entire new housebuilding programme.

"As a responsible employer, we are in the process of a detailed consultation about our plans with staff over the next few weeks.

"This may result in some staff changes with some roles being based in our new Business Centre in Solihull, though the exact numbers are of course subject to individual consultations with staff themselves.

"Essentially for residents, the service should not feel radically different to now, but we think that the planned changes to our services across the group means we are far better prepared for the future."