SOVEREIGN Housing Association has revealed plans for a restructure which will see huge changes to its maintenance services.

Spectrum Property Care and Sovereign Response will merge by the end of next month to become one team.

It has denied claims that up to 200 jobs could be lost.

The company also plans to pull out of external contracts over the next 12-18 months before moving to a single Sovereign brand and the closure of Spectrum by 2020.

Property managers were made aware of the proposed changes in recent days in an email from Steve Barford, Executive Director, Property.

When contacted by the Daily Echo, he said: “Changes are happening at Sovereign as we bring our two maintenance services, Spectrum Property Care and Sovereign Response together as one team, under one brand, Sovereign.

“Our plan is to grow this team, focusing our energies on providing a quality service for people living in our homes. To help us do this we’ll be bringing more maintenance work in-house and, over the next few years, we’ll phase out the external contracts currently managed by SPC.

“Our aim is that anyone currently working on external contracts will, in the future, work in-house. We are not anticipating any redundancies.”

A recent neighbourhood meeting held in the Somerford area of Christchurch saw residents raise concerns about Sovereign.

Tenants said they had complained to the housing association about anti-social behaviour in the area but had received no response.

They also said they had heard the association’s local office in Grange Road had been earmarked for closure and that jobs could be lost.

In an email to managers Mr Barford said: “I’m pleased to report that, following Board approval of the operations strategy, we’ve designed a new and exciting management structure for delivering maintenance services across Sovereign.

“This will not only champion a renewed focus on the customer and the quality of the home and estate, but will also continue our drive for efficiency by optimising our processes and resources.”

Sovereign is one of the biggest housing associations in the country and has 56,000 homes.