Dean: Housing Corporation merger question 'must be asked'

A merger between the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships has come a step closer to reality as the corporation's chairman has admitted that the issue of a union will have to be addressed.

In an exclusive interview with Housing Today, Baroness Brenda Dean said: "We are now working very closely with English Partnerships and so the relationship is now very good. There will come a point at which the question of which a merger has to be asked."

But a spokesperson for English Partnerships chair Margaret Ford poured cold water on the idea. "There is no possibility at all that English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation will merge. We are working closely together, but have two very distinctive roles."

Speculation on the corporation's future has been rife since it lost its inspection role to the Audit Commission last September. One government source said of the merger idea: "The blunt fact is that it makes sense."

Deputy prime minister John Prescott admitted as much in his speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing's presidential dinner in February. He said he had "given strong consideration" to merging the bodies.

Prescott was present at a joint board meeting between the corporation and English Partnerships on Tuesday, it is understood.

The meeting took place as part of the close working relationship between the two quangos that was established by the signing of a memorandum of understanding by Baroness Dean and Ford last November. It is said to be unusual for Prescott to attend such meetings, however.

Meanwhile, National Housing Federation chair Richard McCarthy has written to housing minister Lord Rooker to demand clarification on the membership of regional housing boards.

The NHF is concerned that approaches towards membership of the boards vary from area to area, and in some instances organisations outside the government agencies stipulated in the Communities Plan have been included.

An NHF source said: "We thought smaller players such as tenant groups and pressure groups were intended for regional housing forums, not the regional housing boards.

"This begs the question – is the board something real or is it just another piece of machinery that has only a superficial role?"