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The Brunt of it: meet Bron Afon’s new chief executive
Renowned as a ‘fixer’, Bron Afon’s chief Alan Brunt tells Nathaniel Barker about the challenges of growing diversity and building 450 homes from a standing start. Photography by Tom Wren/SWNS
Like many people in housing, Alan Brunt has a story about how he ended up working in the sector.
The new chief executive of Bron Afon started his career as an accountant working for the behemoth KPMG machine.
But volunteering for Crisis at Christmas under Vauxhall Bridge in London changed all that. It was “a reminder that society is failing a group of people who aren’t able to buy into Christmas in that way”, says the 59-year-old.
Soon after, Mr Brunt moved to Exeter to start work as a finance manager at Devon and Cornwall Housing (DCH), attracted by the “sense of purpose of the organisation and improving lives through housing”, he reflects. “It’s much more important than saving people tax, which is what I was otherwise doing.”
His own life experiences were also an influence. “I wouldn’t want to labour it, but my childhood expectations improved when my mother and I found a secure home in a council house. That changed my life really, and so that’s always been there as part of what’s motivated me in housing.”
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Today, Mr Brunt is a year into the top job at Bron Afon Community Housing, after a varied career across the sector.
Tucked away on an industrial estate on the fringes of Cwmbran, the headquarters of the 8,000-home community mutual association is a rather plain affair. Here Bron Afon is approaching its 10th birthday, after being formed through a stock transfer from Torfaen Council in South Wales.
The setting appears to suit Mr Brunt. Judy Wayne, a director at housing consultancy Altair, says: “Having worked with Alan, he comes across as a quiet, unassuming person. His style belies a strength of character which gets things done. He is totally committed to social housing values.”
“Working in South Wales appealed because the sector in Wales feels different to the sector in England"
Inside Housing has come to find out what direction Mr Brunt is going to take Bron Afon in next. He is all broad smiles as we meet in the lobby and head to the boardroom. It’s daftly large for just two people, he observes, and we settle down at a corner of the 20-seat table.
“Working in South Wales appealed because the sector in Wales feels different to the sector in England,” he explains of his move to Bron Afon. “There is still a strong sense of collaboration around the sector, still a strong attachment to improving communities and neighbourhoods.
“And also you are closer to power and influence. Our trade body [Community Housing Cymru] has good liaison with the minister.
"It’s much harder for the [National Housing Federation] to be able to do that and it’s a more complicated political game.”
Beyond professional life, Mr Brunt has not strayed too far from his DCH days, living on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon with his family. It’s an appealing balance for a self-declared lover of the great outdoors: his downtime split between south-westerly coastal paths and the rolling peaks of the Brecon Beacons.
Prior to Bron Afon, Mr Brunt worked at several landlords as a fixer CEO. Maryhill Housing in Glasgow is one such organisation, and its chair Roger Popplewell is entirely effusive about how he steered the organisation through its “challenging period”. He says: “By the time he left, we had found a new optimism and ambition which has delivered big improvements in service and given us confidence about the future.”
But Mr Brunt has not come to Wales for the easy life. “It’s no secret we had an industrial dispute last summer,” he says unprompted.
In July, a group of about 15 employees in Bron Afon’s supported living team took to the picket line to protest against pay cuts.
Resolving the situation was “not straightforward”, Mr Brunt says.
“I hope we’re through that period in relations with our employees.”
And then, something that will be familiar to many across the sector. There are relatively few tower blocks in Wales, but Bron Afon has three of the tallest – all of which are clad.
“I want chief executives to show the same leadership on inequality.”
“When Grenfell happened, obviously knowing that we have high rises, the first thing that went through all of our minds was ‘are we and our tenants vulnerable – as vulnerable as Grenfell?’ So we had to do a lot of work to just find out about the specifications around the building.”
Fortunately the blocks had sprinklers fitted at the same time as the cladding was installed and the latter does not need to be removed.
“We established that our properties weren’t like the Grenfell Tower. Nonetheless we’ve done an enormous amount of work to reassure our tenants,” he says.
Alan Brunt on …
Theresa May: “Flawed. Impossible task, but the wrong person for the job.”
Jeremy Corbyn: “Not convinced. He needs to be able to run the country. The older I get the less ideological I am.
I hope I’m wrong, I really hope I’m wrong. All my children voted for Corbyn and I was delighted they did.”
Welsh housing minister Rebecca Evans: “Encouraging, love her enthusiasm and good for the sector.”
Brexit: “How on Earth did we get here? Not great. All I’m hearing is it’ll be all right in the end, don’t worry about the detail. Actually I want to know the detail, please.”
Universal Credit: “What we’re finding is that the intervention work we’ve done is paying off. But there’s a cost attached to that.”
Looking forward, Mr Brunt leads Bron Afon as it embarks on its first-ever development programme, with plans to build 450 homes in five years. This, he says, was part of the promise made to tenants during stock transfer.
“Alan has taken on the role at Bron Afon at a time when it is reaching a new stage in its evolution with ambitious growth plans,” says Stuart Ropke, chief executive of Community Housing Cymru, which represents Welsh housing associations.
And there’s one more area Mr Brunt identifies as key to carving out his legacy at Bron Afon.
“Being able to show as an organisation that we are inclusive – that’s really important to me.”
He pauses. “And that’s a challenge, actually, that’s quite a difficult challenge. Because we’re great at talking the talk. It’s shifting from that to genuinely making a difference. That’s what we have to do.”
The conversation turns to Inside Housing’s Inclusive Futures campaign, which aims to boost diversity at the top of the social housing sector.
With a white British mother and a Jamaican father, Mr Brunt is one of few black and minority ethnic chief executives in the sector. He emphasises that he does not want his ethnicity to define him that way – but does he believe it’s impacted on his working experience?
“I mean, probably,” he says, after some hesitation. “I wouldn’t want to overplay it because I’ve become a chief exec, I’ve been a chief exec in other organisations and I’ve operated at a senior level for most of my career. Who knows?
“But I do think there is a cautiousness from boards when it comes to making that key decision: we have two people in front of us, which person do we appoint? There is a way in which it’s easier for people to say, ‘well it’s safer to do what we’ve always done in the past’.”
For Mr Brunt, the battle will be in housing associations having leadership that is brave enough to identify where they are failing on diversity and how to make it better.
Bron Afon recruits four out of five of its employees from the borough of Torfaen. “We know as an organisation that in our locality we have higher levels of disability. That’s probably not yet reflected in our staff. We need to understand why that is.
“And then [we need to] take an assessment of ourselves, an honest look around at our organisation to ask that question. And that’s the bit that’s challenging.”
He’s optimistic about the sector being up to that challenge, though. “My personal experience of the sector is [one] that wants to do the right things, essentially. It doesn’t always do it, because of caution, but essentially it’s a sector that wants to do the right things by people,” he says.
“It’s one of the issues around which we have to show leadership,” he summarises. “I have to show leadership at this organisation around proving that we can, from a standing start, build the 450 homes we’ve planned. We have to show leadership on health and safety compliance, being accountable and listening to our tenants, as well as showing that we’re doing those things.
“But I want other chief executives in the sector to show the same sort of leadership on inequality. If that’s one of the things this campaign influences, then fantastic.”
