Wates Group has acquired Liberty, the property services wing of social housing provider ForHousing, bringing over a thousand staff to Wates
Liberty’s property services team respond to around 1,500 customer calls a day and in 2023 turned over £120m and made 114,781 repairs. The company will continue to trade under its current name.
1,100 Liberty employees will join the Wates Property team, which is alread 1,900 strong. The combined team will specialise in domestic property repair, maintenance, heating and compliance.
Liberty is led from its Knowsley headquarters in Merseyside, with five other bases in Manchester, Leeds, Portsmouth, Havant and Cardiff.
The firm is the “strategic” fit Wates was looking for
Wates Property Services managing director David Morgan said: “We’ve been actively seeking a specialist property support business to expand and strengthen our existing expertise in the social housing sector, and extend our range of services into the areas of heating and compliance, as well as renewable energy services. In Liberty, we’ve found the strategic fit we were looking for, so I’m delighted to be able to make this announcement.”
Liberty managing director Ray Jones said: “By joining Wates, we enter the next stage of our growth and development. Our combined service provision brings a stronger offer to both existing and potential clients, especially in property and renewable energy decarbonisation; services to which Liberty and Wates are strongly connected. This new step forward will ensure continued high-quality services for Liberty’s current clients and their tenants, as well as an exciting future for Liberty and Wates and our people.”
The acquisition of Liberty’s staff will expand Wates’ property division to number half of the staff employed by the Wates Group.
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