Following the Group’s Annual General Meeting on 18 July, we are pleased to announce new board and committee appointments.

Arthur Merchant – Chair, Southern Housing Group Board

Arthur Merchant has been appointed Chair of Southern Housing Group Board, replacing former Chair, Malcolm Groves.

As a former partner and Head of Housing for Grant Thornton UK plc, Arthur specialised in the provision of audit and advisory services to the housing sector for more than 20 years and has also worked in the local authority, NHS, and education sectors. He is a member of the CIPFA Housing Association Panel and sits on the boards of two other registered providers. Until the end of 2014, he served as a board member of the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce for more than seven years.

Tom Dacey, CEO of Southern Housing Group, said: “I am delighted to welcome Arthur to his new role as Chair of the Board. His extensive experience and knowledge of the Group will be greatly valued and I am looking forward to working with him to achieve our shared vision. I am sure Arthur and everyone will join me in extending our gratitude to Malcolm for the great service he has given the Group.”

Atter stepping down as Board Chair, Malcolm now joins the Group Pension Plan as a Trustee. 

Carol Rosati OBE - Member, Southern Housing Group Board and Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee

Carol Rosati has over 25 years’ experience in talent management and executive search. In 2008 she founded Inspire, which connects more than 6,000 board-level women globally. She works with organisations to create diversity of thought, better balanced teams, and more diverse workforces. Carol is also involved with Inspiring the Future, visiting schools to professionally inspire young people. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen's 2015 Birthday New Honours List for services to women in business, and is a Brummell City Champion of Diversity.

Carol joined Southen Housing Group as an independent member of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee in 2014 and will now chair the committee. 

Development Committee

The Group’s Development Committee has welcomed Sarah Chaudhry and Colin Goodwin, who were appointed committee members at the Group’s AGM.

Sarah has more than 20 years’ experience in investments, regeneration, sales, marketing, and property and facilities management and is currently Head of Property for Brent Council where she oversees the council’s operational and non-operational portfolio. Prior to joining Brent Council in 2012, Sarah was Development Manager for the Home Group where she was responsible for delivering new business, asset management and regeneration, and development services for general and special needs housing.

Colin is currently a non-executive member of the Property Investment Committee of the Diocese of Rochester and has more than 35 years’ experience in the UK property sector, 12 years of which has been as a Fund Manager. Recently, he was a Senior Fund Manager for a £1.6bn UK insurance property fund with a portfolio of more than 100 assets throughout the UK.

We are pleased to welcome James Francis as our new Finance Director and Mike May as our new Construction Director. 

James joins the Group from Circle Housing where he held finance director roles and led significant improvements in the value for money delivered by the organisation and its finance function.

He comments: “I believe that everyone deserves opportunity in life, and have chosen to work with organisations which are guided by this value. I’m immensely proud to be joining Southern Housing Group. I’m looking forward to working with the Group Strategy Team to ensure the Group can sustain its success in a more challenging operating environment, and the finance function will have a vital role to play.”

Mike has been with the Group for more than 10 years and has considerable experience in house building, having worked previously for the Berkeley Group and Laing Homes.

Currently the Managing Director of Southern Space, he will take on his new role from 1 September 2016. He will lead the new in-house Construction Team to build quality new homes on our sites rather than solely rely on external developers to deliver these. The team will be set up over the next six months and aims to start working onsite towards the end of this financial year.

Mike said: “I am thrilled to take up this new and exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to building some great quality new homes for our customers”.

Each year, the Board and Group Strategy Team assess the ongoing relevance and suitability of the Group’s corporate strategy. After reviewing our performance against five key challenges, we are doing well.

Some of our recent highlights include:

• Retaining our HCA governance and viability rating at G1/V1
• Increasing development activity from 300 to an average of 500 homes per year
• Helping customers access more than £875k of benefits they were entitled to in 2015
• Introducing a dedicated customer Twitter account and webchat as additional ways for customers to contact us

Looking forward in 2016/17, we will continue to improve the quality of our homes, excel in the customer service we provide, and strengthen our financial position.

We will continue to focus on the services and works already in place, ensuring we make it simple and easy to do business with us. We will also look to improve customer satisfaction to ensure our customers are at the forefront of everything we do.

Maintaining our strategy in this way helps us retain our independence and reinforce our strong financial position. It also enables us to transform our services through the Building our Future programme.

As part of Building our Future, the Group’s change programme to improve our customer service, we’ve been looking at how we can improve the service we give our customers, regardless of how they contact us. Here are some of the ways we’ve been doing this:

• We’ve introduced Customer Voice Forums, a new way for customers to get involved and help decide our priorities and focus. The Forums are a big change from how we used to consult with customers.
• We’re asking companies we work with to provide extra benefits for our customers. These could be in the form of work opportunities, free training, or funding for local projects.
• Following customer feedback about our complaints process, we’ve made changes to the way we handle customer feedback, including setting up a new Customer Relations Team.
• Later in the year, we’ll be trialling new technology for our staff so they can do more for our customers while away from the office. This will mean issues can be logged and actioned quicker.
• We’ve also been looking at where our staff are based, providing more local hubs so they have more choice about where they are based, and frontline staff can be closer and more accessible to customers. This will help us respond to any queries more quickly and efficiently.
• We’ll be working with companies we work with to make sure they deliver the same high customer service standards that we set for our own people.

 

The UK Corporate Governance Code sets out standards of good practice for listed companies on board composition and development, remuneration, shareholder relations, accountability, and audit.

The code offers increased business flexibility for Southern Housing Group, and we are one of only a small number of housing associations that have chosen to operate under it. In April and May this year, we had our first independent assessment of the Southern Housing Group Board. The assessment concluded it is “a well-run and successful board and generally has established appropriate corporate governance procedures.”

The assessment was done by George Bartlett Ltd, and will form part of the evidence base of any HCA In Depth Assessment.

The government-sponsored Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the regulating body for housing associations in England.  It sets standards principally around governance, financial viability, value for money, and consumers. In March 2016, we retained our HCA governance and viability rating at G1 and V1 respectively – the highest attainable - which recognises us as being a well-governed and financially robust organisation.

In Depth Assessments

In 2015, the HCA regulation committee introduced a new regulatory tool called the In Depth Assessment (IDA). For any housing association with more than 1,000 units, an IDA involves an assessment of performance in detail, examining key data and interviewing senior staff and Board members. 

How we are preparing for an IDA

The Group’s Director of Compliance, Simon Goulding, is working with the Board and Group Strategy Team to prepare for a future IDA. This involves ensuring key documents and other data are easily available and that the Group is able to articulate an agreed message on strategic direction, financial planning, and delivering demonstrably good value for money.

Following an unannounced government inspection, 22 Argyll St, a Southern Housing Group scheme for people with learning disabilities on the Isle of Wight, has resulted in a ‘good’ rating across all five standards of care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection assessed whether the service provided at 22 Argyll Street was safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led, and the scheme achieved a ‘good’ rating in all aspects.

The report found that:

‘People were cared for with kindness and compassion. All interactions we observed between people and staff were positive and it was clear that staff knew people very well. Staff supported people to build and maintain relationships and protected their privacy at all times.’

The inspection involved conversations with residents, their relatives, a visiting NHS professional, and managers and support workers. It also looked at resident care plans and saw how services were delivered.

The scheme, which provides accommodation for up to eight people, offers outdoor and community activities designed to increase the quality of life for residents, help them build friendships, maintain social interaction, and foster a sense of achievement.

In July, the Group’s Development Directorate were nominated for three awards in one week:

• Bow River Village, one of our largest developments in London, was shortlisted as a Top 60 Developments 2016 by Inside Housing in the ‘Affordable Housing Development of the Year’ category.
• Cameron Close, our first PassivHaus development on the Isle of Wight, was nominated as a Top 60 Developments 2016 in the ‘Innovative Development of the Year’ category.
• Second Steps, our mobility service for shared owners, made the shortlist for this year’s National Housing Awards in the ‘Most Innovative/Specialist Solution’ category.

These nominations follow Bow River Village’s recent win in the ‘Best Large Development’ category at the First Time Buyer Readers’ Awards 2016 and Cameron Close’s nomination for a Housing Design Award.

The results will be announced on 8 September for the National Housing Awards and on 14 October for the Top 60 Developments 2016.

Three of our Isle of Wight customers were recognised for their achievements in adult learning at the 2016 Isle of Wight Council Adult Community Learning Awards.

Jodi Collet-Rogers was celebrated for her achievements with Bodster Equine Assisted Learning Centre, which helps people develop confidence and self-awareness through interacting with horses. Jackie Pullen and Natalie Johns were recognised for their achievements in Digital Smart Start, a six week course designed and run by Southern Housing Group Financial Skills Officer, Louise Baugh.

Louise developed the course with manager Zoe Maurice and delivered it in partnership with Isle of Wight Council Adult Community Learning.

The course took place twice a week in February and March 2016. Participants attended classes on digital and financial skills covering online and Microsoft Office basics, including emailing, online banking, and online job searching.

Did you know you can get in touch with us on Twitter? To find out more about the work we do and how to get involved, follow @SHGroupUK.

We’re also on LinkedIn where you can find out about our developments, resident initiatives, career opportunities, and more.