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Former Soha chair and tenant participation champion dies
National housing figure and former chair of Soha Housing’s board Carole Burchett has died at the age of 75.
In 2013, Ms Burchett was the founding chair of the Soha Tenant Scrutiny Group. On setting up the group, she said: “The tenant auditors check that Soha ‘does what it says on the tin’; scrutiny group checks whether Soha has the right tin in the first place.”
Ms Burchett joined the board of tenant engagement organisation Tpas in 2013. In 2016 she co-launched a national campaign to challenge the stigma associated with social housing.
While attending the launch of the campaign at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s annual conference, Ms Burchett booked a meeting with Greg Clark, housing secretary at the time, by waving her diary when he took questions on his commitment to amplify the voice of social housing tenants.
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Ms Burchett’s interests extended beyond housing: between 2010 and 2012 she served as vice-chair of the standards committee of South Oxfordshire District Council and between 2012 and 2014 she was a member of the independent monitoring board of HMP Huntercombe.
Anne Power, professor of social policy and head of LSE Housing and Communities, said: “Carole really believed that tenants like herself with a rich life experience could make a unique contribution to social housing. Of this she was living proof.”
Kate Wareing, chief executive at Soha Housing, said: “On behalf of Soha, and on behalf of the wider sector, we thank her for all she gave, all she taught us, and for the joy of working with her.”
