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Peabody and Family Mosaic are the latest housing associations to announce plans to merge, in a deal that would create a 拢618m-turnover group providing 55,000 homes to residents in London and the South-east.

The deal is expected to complete in July next year, with the combined organisation to be known as Peabody.

Current Peabody chair and former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake, would be chair of the combined organisation while Brendan Sarsfield, chief executive of Family Mosaic, would become the housing association鈥檚 chief executive. Ian Peters, chair of Family Mosaic, would take up the post of vice chair.

Peabody and Family Mosaic are the latest in a flurry of housing associations to announce plans to merge. .

Other housing associations to strike deals recently include Affinity Sutton and Circle Housing, and Genesis Housing and Thames Valley.

The raft of deals comes as housing associations seek to bolster their balance sheets in the face of an annual 1% rent cut imposed by government, the extension of 鈥榬ight to buy鈥� to their properties, and a requriement to provide more homes for sale.

The planned merger between Peabody and Family Mosaic could accelerate the former鈥檚 plans to carry out a 拢1.5bn overhaul of the 1960s-built Thamesmead estate in South-east London.

Both housing associations said the larger group would have better resources to build more homes and provide local community services.

In a joint statement, Lord Kerslake and Ian Peters said: 鈥淥ur combined scale and London focus would enable us to do more together than we could achieve alone.

鈥淲e would鈥� make a significant contribution to addressing London鈥檚 housing crisis through effective placemaking, including the regeneration of Thamesmead, London鈥檚 new town.鈥�

L&Q and East Thames said their combined organisation - which will be known as L&Q - has set itself the target of delivering 100,000 new homes, of which it says half will be 鈥済enuinely affordable to people on average and lower incomes鈥�.