The Scottish Leaders List

After 17 years running Impact Arts, which she founded to allow communities to transform their lives through creativity and the arts, Susan Aktemel has turned her talents to housing. Her business, Homes for Good, is Scotland’s first social enterprise lettings agency. It has already won three national and global awards for social entrepreneurship. Fed up with bad practice in private lettings, Ms Aktemel felt she could do better. Homes for Good now manages a portfolio of over 300 properties across Scotland for over 100 landlords, and to date Ms Aktemel has raised £8m to create a portfolio of properties for people on low incomes and who would otherwise struggle to find somewhere decent to live. “We want to provide quality private rented homes for people who really need them,” she explains, filling a gap in the market.

Keith Anderson honed his talents as head of housing development at City of Edinburgh Council, garnering 34 years’ experience in housing and regeneration, including such major projects as redeveloping Edinburgh’s neglected Forth shoreline. Now chief executive of Port of Leith Housing Association (POLHA), he has continued his connection to waterfront projects, with plans for affordable housing in Granton, making it an “even better place for people to live, visit and do business”, he says.
His keen interest in employability and community initiatives is reflected in POLHA’s capacity building activities, especially helping young people take control of their lives.

Lesley Baird, who started with TPAS in 1996, has been chief officer since 1999. As well as working with the board of management to develop the strategic and policy direction of TPAS, she manages its day-to-day work. She has a hands-on role in training and feels proud when tenants and staff build their skills and confidence to have a positive impact in their communities.Ms Baird recalls one tenant who was nervous of chairing her first meeting: “She sent me a message to say she had been terrified, but remembered the training session and used the skills she had learnt.”

Nicola Barclay wields substantial influence as chief executive of house builders’ organisation Homes for Scotland. She acknowledges the sector’s “passion, tenacity and commitment” and believes her job is “to make the connections necessary to help enable change”. She’s proud of her key role in supporting the industry. One particular memory she cherishes is of a visit to India with Habitat for Humanity to build a home, with 12 other women, for a local family who had been living in a wooden shack. “The look of delight on their faces when we handed the brick house over to them will stay with me for ever,” she recalls.

Kay Blair, who retires this month as chair of the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR), has brought her broad experience of the business world to the organisation. Sound governance is her key priority.
“It’s vital for delivering good outcomes for tenants,” she explains. As a financial journalist and business consultant, she has held positions on public bodies, including NHS Lothian, Edinburgh’s Health and Social Care Integration board and the Scottish Consumer Council.
Ms Blair’s work on these bodies has been focused on getting a better deal for the public. She believes that the SHR should ensure effective service delivery, good governance and strong financial health.

Under Mike Bruce, Weslo Housing Management has developed a track record of innovation. His work on Right to Buy buy-backs, creating a flexible tenure model, was a forerunner for the Scottish Government’s Mortgage to Rent scheme, launched in 2003. That scheme has saved 2,700 homeowners from repossession in the past 12 years. He is also proud of persuading then-regulator Communities Scotland (CS) to change its rules in 2007. This allowed Weslo, which has paid board members, to register as a social landlord, despite CS’s preference for board volunteers. He has ensured Weslo maintains strong corporate social responsibility in the wider community.

Professor Fitzpatrick is a leading researcher into the causes of homelessness in Scotland and an advocate for holistic solutions. As professor of housing and social policy at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, she specialises in research on homelessness and exclusion, in Scotland and abroad. She is proud of being “involved... in improving the homelessness legislation in all three GB countries”. Ms Fitzpatrick has held posts at the University of Glasgow, where she completed a PhD in youth homelessness, and the University of York, as well as at Heriot-Watt, where she is director of iSPHERE, the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research.

Lesley Fraser has led one of the Scottish Government’s key housing directorates, now called Housing and Social Justice, through a time of housing policy upheaval, since 2013. During her time, the Scottish Government implemented reforms, such as abolition of the Right to Buy, and has shown political determination to reduce housing inequalities and homelessness. Prior to her appointment, Ms Fraser worked in a variety of roles in the Scottish Government, from primary care to strategy and performance. She is also an expert in historic buildings. Before joining the government, she worked with English Heritage, Tower Hamlets Council and the UK government.

John Gallacher has been at the heart of the Scottish housebuilding industry for nearly 40 years, with many achievements to his credit. He is the driving force behind City Legacy – a consortium of four Glasgow-based house builders which designed, constructed and delivered the world-renowned Athletes’ Village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He is especially proud of developing space standards to meet the needs of different tenures, creating tenure-blind house types that help to integrate mixed-tenure estates. He has also supported the desire of many families for front doors and gardens. He has encouraged Cruden to run a comprehensive apprenticeship programme.

Dr Hamlet is an advocate for reducing homelessness through better joint collaboration between health and housing services. He is a consultant for Fife health board, where his passion is reducing health inequalities. Over two years he got every Scottish council to contribute their homelessness data to a national data bank, where it is being linked to health and mortality and drug misuse data. He is reinvigorating NHS Scotland’s contribution to prevention and mitigation of the health causes of homelessness and insecure tenancy.
His homeless prevention mantra consists of five ‘Rs’: rafters, relationships, resources, restoration and resilience.

Under Kristen Hubert’s leadership, engagement and action in local authority areas on the issue of empty homes has improved dramatically. Previously there was no national co-ordinated effort. Since 2010, Ms Hubert has worked with the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership (SEHP) to persuade councils of the value of getting properties back into use, by showing they can generate revenue as well as help to solve housing shortages and stimulate community regeneration. She has been national manager for the partnership since 2015, and during her time at SEHP she has seen spectacular results, with 2,474 homes brought back into use.

Peter Martin wants Sanctuary to become the first Scottish social landlord to build all its new homes through an in-house team, ensuring quality control and value for money. He ensures Sanctuary plays a leading role in development and regeneration. He is proud of a £60m scheme to replace 1960s blocks at Anderston in Glasgow city centre, with 540 high-quality new build homes, creating a thriving new community. Another notable success is the £75m regeneration of Cumbernauld’s high-rise blocks. Alongside development, Mr Martin is committed to generating inward investment in community arts.

Picture: Press & Journal

Angela Scott has been at the helm of Aberdeen City Council since 2014. She was head of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales before joining the city council in 2013. Under her stewardship, in 2016 the council became the first local authority in Scotland to issue bond finance. The £370m bond will be used to finance a major capital programme of works in the region, including a comprehensive city centre masterplan that will involve a significant housebuilding programme.

Newly elected vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), Jim Strang is renowned for his passion for social housing. He has guided the relatively small Parkhead Housing Association, in the impoverished east end of Glasgow, to a position where it can punch above its weight. His 10-year tenure has seen it grow 35% and win a Best Small Housing Association of the Year award. Jim also supports local charities and developed a veterans’ garden. One project, at Whiterose, was a particular achievement: “I felt like an Olympic hurdler after it!”

Michael Thain has worked at the heart of Edinburgh’s housing plans for more than 15 years. Over the next decade, he will be working to deliver 16,000 new, affordable and low-cost homes. He has built strong relationships between the council, local housing associations and other key partners. In recognition of the growing demand for private rented housing in Edinburgh, he is driving proposals for an arm’s-length housing company to offer quality mid-market and low-cost market homes for rent. Mr Thain is also working with colleagues across the region to secure investment to unlock strategic sites for future development.