Client: Longhurst Group
Fee Earner: Sanjeev Shah
Background
This case involves Perrin Myddelton protecting the client’s interests in a joint venture with 4 participating housing associations, and involving unusual issues related to an underlying development and the potential purchase of a target company.
Longhurst Group is an extremely active player within the Social Housing Sector and in particular its programme of development is expanding rapidly.
This particular matter concerns a Joint Venture (Evera Homes LLP) which Longhurst has entered into with 3 other Housing Associations, where each one of the four has a specific role. Different associations are responsible for sourcing and procuring sites, development and planning, delivering the dwellings, and then the successful sale of units. .
This specific case involves a development site with permission for building 60 homes, which Longhurst alone was originally involved in. It was intended that Longhurst would purchase the company that owned the development site in a “corporate wrapper” transaction. The due diligence work of Perrin Myddelton identified that one of the shareholders of the target company had a bankruptcy order lodged against them, which necessitated a change of approach from corporate sale of the owning company to an asset sale of the Property by the owning company to the client.
Longhurst is now transferring the property, for which full planning permission was successfully gained into the Evera Homes JV. This is being dealt with back to back with a contract to build and supply 24 affordable homes to another housing association within the Longhurst Group.
This case identifies the varied and wide range of services which Perrin Myddelton provides to its clients in the Social Housing Sector – from company/commercial advice relating to the purchase of the company owning the site, advice regarding JV arrangements with partner housing associations, active negotiation in the drafting and varying of s106 agreements affecting the development site, negotiating agreements with adjoining land owners to facilitate the development of the site and negotiating both site sale agreements to Evera Homes and development agreements with Evera Homes for the delivery of affordable housing to another housing association within the Longhurst Group.
The framework in which this has been carried out also reflects Perrin Myddelton’s deep understanding of how housing associations can work together for the delivery of affordable housing. In this regard please note that Evera Homes has an ambition to create 500 new homes per annum across multiple sites.