CIH aims to double membership by 2020
The Chartered Institute of Housing has announced a plan to double in size by 2020 and is overhauling its top management to achieve this.
The currently 22,000-member professional body hopes to encourage more private sector landlords, contractors and consultants as well as more social housing professionals to undertake qualifications to become CIH members.
Grainia Long, CIH chief executive, said the plan to grow to 40,000 members would emphasise the ‘value’ of attaining a CIH qualification and, as a result, would help ‘ensure the organisation is in robust financial health’.
The CIH made an operating loss of £160,000 in 2011, despite increasing its income by £126,000 to £12.2 million. This was mainly a result of a stock market loss of £136,000 and a decision to maintain charitable spending at £10.5 million. At the time Ms Long pledged to outline plans so the organisation would be ‘less dependent on our investment income to fund our business activities’.
Martin Winn, director of professional development, and Duncan Snook, director of finance and corporate services, are both to leave the CIH. Three new director posts will be created: director of education and membership, director of commercial services and director of operations (deputy chief executive).
Ms Long said: ‘Martin and Duncan have made an immense contribution to the CIH and the sector. This is a restructure to deliver our goals. It has been a very personal decision for both directors to leave CIH.’
She added: ‘This plan is about the next stage of our development. We want to build on the success of previous years and nurture what is an important organisation.’
Ms Long said this would involve investment in ‘supporting members further in their careers’ by doing things such as producing a ‘housing career map’. She declined to say how much the CIH planned to spend in doing this.
The CIH will also continue a programme of emphasizing the number of ‘continuing professional development’ points individual members have accrued during a year. However, Ms Long said it would not ‘require people’ to reach a certain annual number to maintain their membership at this stage.
