Two of Cumbria's largest housing providers could be joining forces.

Impact Housing Association revealed yesterday that it had started talks with Riverside about joining The Riverside Group.

A spokesman for Impact said the move was being considered to "improve long-term prospects for their homes, tenants and staff".

The association has been speaking to a number of other housing providers, to explore all options for future partnership.

It whittled down a shortlist and interviewed those who made the cut, to "find the best-fit partner who shares the same values and has a sound framework for listening and delivering services locally", the spokesman added.

Riverside was selected by Impact’s board at the end of 2017.

Riverside owns and manages more than 52,000 homes in England and Scotland, including 6,500 in Cumbria.

In March last year, Impact owned more than 2,700 properties - the biggest concentration of housing is in Allerdale, where it owns more than 1,200 properties, 700 on the Salterbeck Estate.

Mark Costello, Impact’s chairman, said of the partnership: “We have made substantial progress in the last six months, restructuring our organisation and making £1.3m savings.

"This helped generate interest from several housing associations, giving us real choice.

“We are delighted to be commencing talks with Riverside, whose bid impressed us on every level.

"They clearly understand the challenges that have led to us seeking a partner association, and our board believes they have the local knowledge and national strength that will support us in securing a sustainable future for our homes and services.

"We are both strongly values-driven organisations, and this makes us a ‘good fit’.”

Max Steinberg, chairman of Riverside’s board, added: “We are very excited at the prospect of working with Impact to help deliver improvements for its 3,000 customers in Cumbria.

"We believe our bid set out a very realistic and deliverable set of plans for both short-term recovery and long-term prosperity as the two organisations work together, and we are very much looking forward to getting those plans underway.

“We are now commencing detailed negotiations and a due diligence process, after which we will be in a position to announce our joint plans in greater detail, and secure the support of the shareholders and funders of both organisations.”