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Aileen Evans wins CIH vice-president election

Aileen Evans has been elected vice president of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) following a poll of members.

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Aileen Evans, chief executive of Grand Union Housing Group
Aileen Evans, chief executive of Grand Union Housing Group
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Aileen Evans of @GrandUnionHG wins the @CIHhousing vice-president election @Bushbell #ukhousing @MatharooDarshan @LindseyW_fhg #ukhousing

Huge congratulations to @Bushbell – winner of the @CIHHousing vice-president election #ukhousing Well done also to @MatharooDarshan and @LindseyW_fhg who ran her close

Aileen Evans has won the @CIHHousing vice-president election – read her profile and Q&A here #ukhousing @Bushbell

Ms Evans, chief executive of 11,000-home Grand Union Housing Group, took 41% of the 1,654 votes cast, beating Lindsey Williams and Darshan Singh Matharoo, who polled 34% and 25% respectively.

The result means Ms Evans will become vice-president next month before stepping up to president next year.

In a Q&A for Inside Housing last week (see below), Ms Evans called for every nation in the United Kingdom to make “a long-term commitment to social housing... agreed across the main parties”. She added this would “normalise” social housing and eradicate the stigma attached to it.

Responding to her victory, Ms Evans said: “I’m both proud and humbled that CIH members have elected me as their next vice president and I’d like to pay tribute to Lindsey and Darshan, two outstanding candidates, for making this a contest that shone a light on the fantastic work of our sector.”


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Terrie Alafat, chief executive of CIH, said: “We’re delighted to announce that Aileen will be the next vice president of the CIH. I know that she will be a great successor to Jim and together they will make a fantastic team.

“I was really impressed by all three candidates and their passion and enthusiasm for CIH. Darshan and Lindsey should be extremely proud of the effort they put into their campaigns.

“I’d like to thank all of the CIH members who took the time to vote – we look forward to working with Aileen when she becomes vice president next month.”

Aileen Evans' Q&A

Aileen Evans' Q&A

This Q&A was written before the publication of the Social Housing Green Paper

 

If you were housing minister, what would you do first?

I would negotiate a 5 year contract so that I could start to fix the housing crisis and know I’d be around to see the ideas bearing fruit. Then I’d meet with my opposite numbers from other political parties to agree a cross-party consensus.

I’d do three things. Firstly, I’d review how we capture value from land and bring forward reform proposals so that land has a standard valuation rather than being valued by what we put on it.

Secondly, I’d review the greenbelt because its use is undermining much-needed improvements in our cities – there’s enough of it inside the M25 to build over 4 million homes for example, but I don’t want to concrete over our green and pleasant land – and quite a lot of the greenbelt is neither green nor pleasant!

I would look at how greenbelt is designated, and at how it can constrain development around cities, forcing up land and house prices. For example, Oxford, London and Cambridge are all heavily constrained by the greenbelt, and have some of the most unaffordable homes in the country.

Thirdly, I’d win the battle with the Treasury and invest £5bn a year into social rented housing (part-funded by RTB receipts not yet spent on new homes).

This will provide decent homes for people and, in the medium term, cut the amount the government wastes through the housing benefit system by subsidizing high rents instead of investing in safe, genuinely affordable homes for the future.

The housing crisis is complex – so these three things would just be the foundation of what needs to be done….

Why should someone choose a career in housing?

I will let you into a secret – I was going to be a professional French horn player and got a job in Nottingham City Council while I was establishing my music career.

I loved the job, it was never the same two days running and I loved being part of the public sector. I enjoy building new homes and working with people to create services we all value.

I did my CIH Professional Qualification which equipped me for this brilliant career too. Without doubt, working in housing has been the best decision I’ve ever made. That’s why someone should choose a career in housing.

How can we tackle the stigma of social housing?

Every nation in the UK needs to make a long term commitment to social housing and this needs to be agreed across the main parties.

That will ensure it’s a natural part of the social and housing fabric of this country. Normalising it will eradicate the stigma.

What are you hoping for from the Social Housing Green Paper?

As landlords we need to act in a way that ensures our tenants trust us and have confidence in us.

If the Green Paper encourages the sector to be more transparent about how we achieve that, then that would be good.

I think a return to the word ‘tenant’ in the regulatory standards would be good too – I get why we are monitored over our governance and viability but we own four million houses that many millions of people call home and that responsibility needs to be recognised as part of our regulation.

"A return to the word ‘tenant’ in the regulatory standards would be good"

Let’s not forget that housing is devolved and this is an English Green Paper - we have four distinct housing systems and we can learn from the devolved nations and take the best ideas from each other – if the Green Paper has an end to section 21 notices as in Scotland for example, then that would be great.

What unites all four devolved nations is welfare policy – you can’t fix housing without fixing welfare so something that deals with the benefit cap and the many flaws in Universal Credit, for example, would be good.Otherwise, please see the answer to question 1.

In your view, who should social housing be for?

A much broader range of people than it currently is. Our sons and daughters who have no hope of owning a home, our siblings, parents, those with supported housing needs, those living in expensive private rented homes or who are homeless – this isn’t an exhaustive list but I think you get the picture.

How should social housing organisations promote greater inclusivity among their leadership teams?

By starting at the bottom and ensuring recruitment practices for every role in their organisations reflect the principles of diversity and inclusion. Then ensuring that training and development is inclusive, as are opportunities for promotion. And monitoring it, reporting it and constantly asking the question of everyone in our organisations: “What more can we do?”

Who is your biggest hero, and why?

Difficult one this and it was a toss-up between my Mum and Katharine Graham who owned the Washington Post during the Watergate Affair.

Both took on the establishment and won although Katherine Graham did it on a much bigger scale and brought down the Nixon Government so I think I’ll go for her.

Aileen Evans

Aileen Evans

Aileen is the group chief executive of Grand Union Housing, where she has worked since 2014.

Her career in housing began in 1979 with Nottingham City Council as a neighbourhood services manager.

She has held executive level positions in housing for the last 22 years and she has been a member of CIH for 30 years.

 

Candidate statement:

My parents; a coal miner and a hospital receptionist, scraped together a deposit to buy a house. It gave my siblings and I a stable family home, and an environment where we felt secure and could learn and grow, without worries about being served notice or asked to move, without insecurity about where we might move to or whether our education would be disrupted.

This happy, secure start benefitted us enormously.

Everyone deserves that. Without it, I wouldn’t be doing what I do now. Contrast that with families’ experiences today: shortage of good quality housing and insecurity of tenure (especially in the private rented sector where evictions are now the single largest reason for homelessness).

And an affordability crisis which extends beyond the low-paid, locking many out of the housing market, leaving families vulnerable and damaging people’s life chances.

What we do as housing organisations has never been more necessary. It matters. Hence what the CIH does matters too. CIH’s role is to equip those working in housing with the skills to deal with our challenges: the housing crisis and welfare reform. CIH needs to be resilient, clear in purpose, promoting the art and science of housing.

As the home of professional standards, CIH exists to ensure its members are skilled - remaining equipped for the challenges involved in working in a rewarding profession in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.

"What we do as housing organisations has never been more necessary"

My long career in both local government and housing associations means that I would bring a unique set of skills to the role of vice president - CIH isn’t a trade body but a professional body; acting in the public interest, not just the sector’s interests. I believe my skills and experience would support this broad role.

I am experienced in the science of governance too – I sat on the board of the YMCA until recently, and currently chair a school governing body. I have good links across housing – Shelter, Placeshapers, TPAS, the National Federation of ALMOs and the NHF.

The #makeastand campaign has shown what the sector can do if we pull together; I want to build on this. As a co-founder of the SHOUT campaign, I believe that continuing to make the economic case for properly affordable homes is vital to solving the housing crisis.

I believe it is important that CIH continues to embrace differences in policy across the UK’s devolved nations – we can learn from one another and I would seek to promote this. I have considerable media experience in informing the public about our work to alleviate the housing crisis (Channel 4, ITV, BBC regional programmes and Radio).

I write for the housing press and would continue to promote housing’s cause and the CIH role in finding solutions to the crisis. As a housing association chief executive, I know the challenges we face in transforming our organisations, meeting government expectations, and managing risk. As vice president, I want to work with the membership, those who would be members and the CIH to help us rise to those challenges.

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