Places for People acquires former Inland Homes for-profit provider

Places for People has bought a for-profit provider from the administrators of collapsed housebuilder Inland Homes.

The 230,000-home provider said the acquisition of Rosewood will enable its fund manager arm Thriving Investments to “launch and scale a platform for institutional capital” to help fund more shared ownership homes.

John Tatham, finance and investor director at Thriving Investments, said: “We now have the ability to provide more shared ownership homes, while maintaining our track record of connecting patient capital with the right type of asset exposure.”

Rosewood, which manages 61 homes, is currently judged non-compliant with the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) governance and financial viability standard. RSH found weaknesses in Rosewood’s financial governance and said its ability to meet regulatory standards had been affected by its parent company Inland Homes going into administration last September.

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>>See also: Inland Homes administrators rule out rescue for any part of the business

In a notice in November, RSH said: “The regulator currently lacks assurance that Rosewood can remain viable, and that social housing and tenants’ homes may not be lost to the sector should a sale not transpire, or values not be achieved. “Furthermore, Rosewood is currently only able to continue to operate with the support of the administrators and the regulator has limited assurance that this support will continue.”

Thriving Investments has a £390m joint venture with Lloyds Banking Group-owned equity investor Housing Growth Partnership to deliver 1,200 homes. It recently secured £100m in equity from USS to fund 1,800 single-family and multi-family homes.