A LEADING homeless charity and mental health support charity have announced they are in talks about a possible merger to extend frontline services and protect their financial position.

Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) and Sussex Oakleaf, which has offices in Worthing, Burgess Hill, Crawley and Littlehampton, say combining their services would bring more opportunities for growth.

Last year, BHT worked with 7,946 clients and tenants, preventing 817 households from becoming homeless while Sussex Oakleaf worked with 1,356 clients.

Should the merger proceed, it will take place in April 2020.

The chairman of Sussex Oakleaf, Graham Maunders, said: “We are very excited about the prospect of working more closely with Brighton Housing Trust to improve our offer to clients.

“We have had a close relationship with them over many years. We are two organisations with very similar values, and we feel that we complement each other well.”

Joan Mortimer, the chairwoman of BHT, said: “By bringing the two organisations together we will become stronger than the sum of our two parts.

“At the heart of our considerations are the tenants and clients of the two organisations.

“There is clear evidence that this is a win-win situation for them, benefiting from the combined strengths of both Sussex Oakleaf and of BHT.”

In the next three months, both charities will discuss their plans with tenants and clients, stakeholders, funders and regulators.

A final decision on whether to proceed with the merger confirmed by June.

Andy Winter, chief executive of BHT, said: “We were delighted when approached by Sussex Oakleaf regarding a possible merger.

“It makes complete sense to come together in the interests of our tenants and clients, our financial wellbeing, and our ability to grow in the future.

“Frontline services will not be affected by this merger and we will be building a new management structure which will reflect our joint strengths.”

Philippa Thompson, the chief executive of Sussex Oakleaf, said: “We have for many years enjoyed a close relationship with BHT, working to provide training for our staff teams, attending each other’s conferences and, most recently, collaborating on various projects.

“It became increasingly apparent that there is an exceptionally good cultural fit, and this has been evolving further over the last six months.”