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For-profit housing association ReSI Housing has appointed the former head of private finance at the social housing regulator to its board as a non-executive director.
Gillian Rowley, who was for 13 years head of private finance at the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), has joined the board of the for-profit association, which is chaired by David Orr, former chief executive of the National Housing Federation.
At the HCA, which has since been split into the Regulator of Social Housing and Homes England, Ms Rowley was responsible for relationships with lenders, investors, advisors and credit rating agencies in the social housing sector.
During some of the same period, she was also a non-executive director at bond aggregator The Housing Finance Corporation, where, according to ReSI, she was “heavily involved in business strategy, financial policy and governance”.
Alex Pilato, chief executive of TradeRisks, the parent of ReSI’s fund manager, said: “Gillian has had an impressive career and is an excellent fit with the current skillset of our board at ReSI Housing.
“She will no doubt have a significant contribution to make as we look to continue to take advantage of our position as the first listed investment fund to achieve registered provider status in order to bring much-needed new affordable homes to market whilst delivering stable and secure income returns for our shareholders. We look forward to working with her.”
ReSI Housing is owned by a real estate investment trust (REIT), ReSI REIT, and invests in shared ownership, retirement and local authority housing.
Although it had initially aimed to focus on shared ownership, it has only struck one deal to buy homes in this tenure, and has found more opportunities in retirement housing.
In January, however, it signed a major £300m partnership agreement with major construction firm Morgan Sindall to help it find opportunities to buy shared ownership homes.
Unlike the other REITs that have entered the social housing sector, it has not signed deals with small social landlords, and has instead focused on major transactions.
The only housing association to have signed a deal with ReSI REIT is giant association Places for People.