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Civitas adds former chief executive and troubled landlord specialist to board
Civitas has bolstered its board with a former housing association boss who has experience of dealing with problem-hit landlords.
The London-based real estate investment trust (REIT) has appointed Alison Hadden, former chief executive of 15,000-home Paradigm, as a non-executive director.
Ms Hadden, who has spent around 30 years in the sector, is currently chair of Midlands-based Housing Plus Group and sits on the board of Yorkshire Housing.
Last week she was announced as a statutory manager by the Scottish Housing Regulator, which means she is on standby to be appointed to landlords facing issues.
Ms Hadden has previous experience in this area, having stepped in as interim chief executive at Trinity Housing Association for four months earlier this year and Manningham Housing Association in 2017.
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Trinity, which leases homes from Civitas, was downgraded to non-compliant by the regulator last year for “potentially putting its tenants at risk”.
Another association that leases homes from Civitas, Westmoreland Supported Housing, saw the regulator intervene with board member appointments 10 months after it was first deemed non-compliant. However, Civitas pointed out at the time that the judgement did not relate to properties owned by the REIT.
Civitas, which owns around 600 properties across England, uses money from the stock market to buy specialised supported housing, which is mainly for people with learning disabilities, and leases it to housing associations on a long-term basis.
The REIT, which launched on the London Stock Exchange in 2016, reported a profit of £19.9m in its last financial year.
In April, the Regulator of Social Housing published a report on supported housing associations that use a lease-based model. The report said it was “hard to see” how housing associations that operate equity-linked business models can comply with its standards.
