Places for People Group (PfP) is the UK’s leading Social Enterprise. PfP exists to change lives by creating and supporting Thriving Communities, and this involves the management of safe, good quality homes, the development of new homes in the right locations and helping Communities and Customers through supporting education, health, wellbeing, employment and inclusion.

PfP has a number of subsidiaries registered as Registered Providers of social housing and is regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH).

Visit www.placesforpeople.co.uk to find out more.

A Transfer of Engagements is the legal process where one housing association transfers into another. This means that all the homes, responsibilities, and commitments – including to residents – move to the new landlord. From a resident’s point of view, your tenancy, lease or licence and your rights stay protected, and your landlord will change to the new housing provider. The organisation transferring will no longer exist, and everything becomes part of the receiving housing association.

A Transfer of Engagements is a legal process regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and overseen by the Regulator of Social Housing. This makes sure it is carried out properly and is in residents’ best interests.

No, the terms of your tenancy, licence or lease agreement would not change in any way, because of the Transfer of Engagements. Your rights and responsibilities under your tenancy/lease would remain the same.

No, the rents charged by all Registered Providers are governed by the law and by a framework set by central government and the Regulator of Social Housing. Changes to your rent will always happen in line with this framework, reflecting government requirements and policies.

No, service charges won’t go up because of the Transfer of Engagements. Service charges are based on the estimated cost of delivering services and are reviewed each

year, so they may go up or down, depending on these costs. Any changes to your services or charges will always be communicated with you.

For most properties, service charges for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 were calculated by Elim and shared with you in February 2026. For charges from April 2027 onwards, Places for People will be responsible for reviewing and communicating your service charges to you.

No, you would not have to move. The Transfer of Engagements would not affect your right to remain in your current home and would not affect your security of tenure.

If the Transfer of Engagements went ahead you would make payments to Places for People Living+ Limited instead of Elim Housing Association Limited. We would make this change as easy as possible for you and let you know any changes you need to make to Standing Orders or other ways to pay.

If you pay by Direct Debit your payments can automatically transfer without you needing to do anything. If you would like to set up a Direct Debit please contact Elim.

No, the Transfer of Engagements will not affect any of the Benefits or Entitlements you currently receive.

Any direct Housing Benefit or Universal Credit payments would need to be made to Places for People Living+ Limited rather than Elim Housing Association Limited, and we would make this change as easy as possible for you.

For residents who live in our supported housing accommodation, we expect your support team would remain the same. If there are any changes in the future we will let you know.

If you live in a shared ownership or general needs rented home managed by PfP, you would have a Community Housing Manager to support you after the proposed Transfer of Engagements. This may be the same person who helps you manage your home now or a new person. If you do have a new Community Housing Manager they would introduce themselves to you and they will have access to all the information they need to work with you.

If you already have a managing agent this is likely to continue and if you are to have a managing agent in the future we will let you know.

Our consultation letter to residents and information sheet are also available in large print and in other languages upon request. Please contact us on 01454 411 172 or email info@elimhousing.co.uk if you would like to request these formats.

PfP have their own repairs workforce and a wide range of contractors who will be used to deliver most of the future repairs services to current Elim homes. PfP will also work with existing Elim suppliers and contractors where there is already a contract in place. In the future, some of Elim’s contractors will have the option to join PfP’s group contractor framework. This means they may continue to work on current Elim homes and other homes owned by PfP.

Yes, if we have confirmed that we will be carrying out planned maintenance or making improvements to your home, then the transfer will not affect this. On rare occasions we may have to delay works to your home for other reasons, but we would let you know if this is the case.

A final decision will be made when we have completed this consultation with our

customers. Then the Elim and PfP Boards will consider the outcome of the consultation. If we do not go ahead with a Transfer of Engagements, you would remain a tenant, leaseholder or licence holder of Elim which will remain a subsidiary of PfP. However, we have always planned for the two organisations to complete a Transfer of Engagements and fully integrate. We believe this would be the most efficient way of merging the two organisations, with the most benefits for current Elim customers.

In the very short term, we recognise that the Transfer of Engagements may cause disruption or uncertainty for some Elim customers. As a small Housing Association, many customers know Elim Colleagues by name, and we know some customers appreciate the historic knowledge and familiarity that has developed over time. We know it may be difficult for some customers to get used to new Colleagues or contact systems, but we are committed to working with PfP to make the transition as smooth as possible for all our customers.

We will be sorry to say goodbye to the ‘Elim Housing’ name, although we are proud to know that our history and contribution will be maintained as part of the history of PfP.   

Overall, we think that the proposed Transfer of Engagements is in the best interests of our residents. The new combined organisation will be better placed to withstand external economic pressures and in time to achieve the benefits we all want to see for our residents and the wider community.

The proposed Transfer of Engagements will have many benefits for Elim Customers.

Some of these benefits have taken place since Elim became a subsidiary of PfP in December 2025. For example, our planned improvement programme for 2026 / 2027 has significantly increased. This means that some planned repairs projects which have been delayed can now be delivered, and the overall quality of Elim properties will be improved.

In addition to the investment in repairs and planned maintenance which has already started, the other benefits of the Transfer of Engagements include:

• An increase in the number of support services available for customers, including access to specialist money and benefit advice services.
• Improved support for meaningful customer involvement at a local, regional and national level. PfP are committed to including ensuring the customer voice is heard at every level of the organisation.
• Access to employment and training opportunities for customers who would like to access work, including apprenticeship opportunities and support with CV and interview techniques
• Opportunities to secure financial support from the Places Impact Fund; this can help meet household need in times of financial difficulty or could be used to support resident trips and/or activities in our supported housing services.
• Access to larger service teams with specialist housing knowledge; this will particularly benefit customers in shared ownership homes who will be able to contact PfP to obtain leaseholder advice.