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Private equity-owned landlord hires Home Group development boss
Sage, the social housing provider backed by US private equity giant Blackstone, has poached a senior executive from Home Group to take up a newly created role as it ups its involvement in the UK’s social housing sector.
Brian Ham, who has spent the past five years as the 55,000-home landlord’s development director, will take the role of director of acquisitions at Sage on 1 July.
It is the second big hire by Sage this year, who installed former Catalyst boss Rod Cahill as its interim chief executive in April.
However, in a surprise move last month, former BBC Trust chair Sir Michael Lyons stepped down as chair of Sage’s sister company, Sage Partnerships, after less than a year in the role.
In an article for Inside Housing last October, Sir Michael said Blackstone’s involvement in the social housing sector could be “game-changing” in helping tackle the UK’s housing crisis.
New York-based Blackstone, which acquired a stake in Sage Housing in January last year, has an asset base expected to soon exceed $500bn.
The firm has faced controversy since its launch into the sector, as the National Housing Federation took legal action to stop Sage calling itself a housing association. Sage subsequently agreed to drop the term ‘housing association’ from its name.
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Sage, which bids for affordable units through Section 106 agreements with private developers, said the appointment of Mr Ham was a sign of its ambition to hit a pipeline of 20,000 affordable homes “as soon as possible”. Its current pipeline is around 8,000 homes.
Mr Cahill said: “This is a new post and it reflects Sage’s determination to further scale up our already substantial pipeline of new affordable homes.”
He added: “Brian will bring terrific leadership, as well as excellent contacts with our key partners – local authorities, funding agencies and house builders.”
Mr Ham, who has 25 years’ experience with property groups and local authorities, said it was a “tremendously exciting time for the sector’s new private registered providers”. He added: “As a nation we’re still falling short of need by 100,000 homes a year, so this new investment can make a huge difference.”
