Over to you...

There is much hilarity coming from the two men in bright ties. From the second I arrive at Aster Group’s offices in the heart of Wiltshire, both Richard Kitson and Bjorn Howard assume a double act. Mr Kitson, departing in less than two weeks after seven years as the group’s chief executive, is handing the baton to Mr Howard. And both men have benefited from the lengthy handover period.

‘I’ve had a brilliant three-month induction,’ enthuses Mr Howard, who left his last post as chief executive of Coastline Housing in May, after six years. Mr Howard has been credited with stewarding the once failing Cornish stock transfer association from supervision to success.

Still, the Aster job is a significant leap: he’ll now be responsible for 16,500 homes and 900 staff compared with 3,500 and 130 at Coastline. The three-month induction is beginning to make sense.

‘When you take on a job like this - which is hugely exciting - it’s so important to have the time to learn the information,’ he says.

‘Obviously I will make sure I continue to hide the skeletons in the cupboard,’ cuts in Mr Kitson.

‘…whereas I’ve spent three months trying to find them,’ quips Mr Howard, to chuckles from his joshing partner.

Smart-suited and cuff-linked, Mr Kitson’s tie flowered to Mr Howard’s stripes, the pair sit facing each other across the table. The 41-year-old Mr Howard looks relaxed, his hands stretched behind his head for most of the interview, a smile on his lips. Mr Kitson gesticulates expressively, twisting his hands into a tepee.

These are no small shoes that Mr Howard is stepping into. And for all the joviality, there’s a serious question on people’s lips - not least those of Aster’s staff and tenants: how will the new man measure up to his predecessor?

Mr Kitson is a big housing beast, whose status in the south west borders the patrician. More than 200 housing professionals travelled to Devizes for the 58-year-old’s farewell lunch in August, ahead of his retirement this month. He’s managed an annual turnover of £80 million (Coastline’s is £16.5 million). After 40 years working full time, mostly in housing, Mr Kitson says he is leaving, ‘to have a bit more leisure time’ - he is a keen sailor - although he will do three days a week consultancy.

He joined Sarsen Housing Association in 2002 as CEO following his 2001 Chartered Institute of Housing presidency, before creating Aster Group in 2003.

He says what he will most miss is ‘the day-to-day contact with staff, having a repartee with the board… and the regular contact with so many people in the sector’.

‘Having been 30 years in charge of some type of operation, I shall find it different only being in charge of myself,’ he says.

‘Can you be trusted?’ laughs Mr Howard, who says he will have no qualms giving Richard a call to say ‘can you shed some light on this?’ or ‘I’ve finally discovered that skeleton’.

In on the act

What can people expect from the new Aster boss? ‘Bjorn’s very good at making people feel relaxed and handling the change in a way that’s sensitive to me bearing in mind I’ve been heavily involved with this organisation for seven years, so it feels very much my baby,’ says Mr Kitson.

‘All sounds good to me,’ says Mr Howard.

‘And he’s prepared to pay me comprehensively for lying,’ adds Mr Kitson, whipping out a wad of notes carefully placed in his folder as they descend into belly laughs.

Over the past three months, Mr Kitson has taught Mr Howard the power of networking, he says. ‘I wanted to come to Aster because I am in many ways a career housing person.’

What would his former employees say about him? ‘I hope my staff would say that I had the strength to take [Coastline] from a very difficult place to a very good place,’ says Mr Howard. ‘It was one of the longest running supervision cases. It was either going to make or break my career.’

‘You mustn’t underestimate what you did at Coastline,’ says Mr Kitson, suddenly grave and looking him straight in the eye. ‘It was a serious problem association. That’s one of the things that the selection panel here [considered] - it showed you had the ability to lead an organisation through difficult times.’

Modest as he is during interview, Mr Kitson’s own achievements can’t be underestimated. Julie Barnett, chief executive of Tamar Housing Society in Plymouth, is typical of others when she describes Mr Kitson’s departure as, ‘a sad loss to the sector.

‘He’s done an awful lot to raise the profile of affordable housing in the south west because we’re a forgotten area,’ she adds.

Both men have worked their way up in the profession and witnessed many changes. Mr Kitson started as a temporary clerk in the highways department at the London Borough of Barnet but since the late 1970s has operated at deputy director level and above. ‘I was recovering mortgage income, because in those days, the councils were great lenders of money for people to buy their own home,’ he says.

Mr Howard’s first post was stalking the vast deck access estates in Essex as a temporary council-employed clerical assistant. ‘The bulk of my time was doing door-to-door rent collection,’ he reminisces, ‘which was a fascinating insight into people’s lives and some of the pressures that our customers face… bag over my shoulder, even then 20 years ago with nearly £1,500 in cash, with no security.’

Mr Kitson appears rapt, nodding furiously. ‘It’s interesting because in the late 1960s,’ he says, ‘we had to discontinue door-to-door rent collection because of two hold-ups that involved firearms - so for you to have been doing rent collections 20 years ago - it must have been quite leafy there…’ They chortle.

‘I used to meet people who were social gatekeepers and the attitude to tenants was to expect them to be grateful - which is not acceptable,’ says Mr Howard. ‘We’re now entering an era focused on output and what individuals and small communities want.’

Mr Kitson says the introduction of right to buy in 1980 created a ‘stigma in the public mind’. ‘Our challenge now is to get back to a society where we have more mixed estates. Some 95 per cent of our tenants are nice, decent people who do look after their homes. If you read the media, you’d think that everyone in social housing is feckless or hopeless - we’ve got to get back to rented housing being a tenure of choice as well.’

And Mr Kitson is clear on what motivates him professionally. ‘Everybody is entitled to have a decent roof over their head, it’s such a fundamental to have adequate shelter,’ he says. But he looks confused when asked what motivates him personally.

‘You live your work, that’s what it is,’ suggests Mr Howard.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ says Mr Kitson, still musing.

‘I think it’s a mark of how civilised a society is, the ability to put a roof over our heads,’ says Mr Howard, easily, adding that his 19-month-old daughter and family life are his personal motivations.

‘I suppose that I enjoy cricket, it’s very good news we got the Ashes back,’ says Mr Kitson, finally. ‘I never really think about what motivates me personally… being alive gets you up in the morning really.’

Later, Mr Howard sees me to the taxi. ‘Did you get the impression that we got on?’ he asks. Soon that will hardly matter.

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