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Terrie Alafat to retire as CIH chief executive
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), has announced that she will retire at the end of November.
Ms Alafat has served at the head of the organisation for just over four years, having joined from her position as director of housing at the then Department for Communities and Local Government in April 2015.
She is set to be succeeded by deputy chief executive Gavin Smart, who has also worked in the Civil Service, as the head of the high-demand housing markets research team at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
At the start of Ms Alafat’s tenure, she told Inside Housing she wanted to split her time between three areas: making the CIH a “robust organisation financially”, strengthening its educational offer to members and making it more authoritative in terms of influencing policy.
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On the first point, the CIH currently has a corporate plan in place to return to profitability by the 2020/21 financial year. The CIH has posted a loss every year for several years, most recently recording a loss of £1m for the 15 months to March 2018.
In a statement, Ms Alafat said: “CIH is now on a sustainable financial footing. Our accounts this year show a £50,000 loss, compared to more than £1m last year; and in the second half of the year we returned to profitability.
“We have launched successful membership initiatives, including a real emphasis on encouraging young people to work in housing and join the profession, and we have a stronger-than-ever position on policy and being the voice of the profession.”
Gavin Smart said: “I’m delighted to have been appointed as CIH’s next chief executive. As a housing professional, to be asked to lead your professional body is an honour and a privilege.”
The CIH’s corporate plan involves cutting overhead costs by £660,000 over three years and making changes to the structure of its senior management team. Membership numbers, meanwhile, have stabilised after previous losses at just under 17,000.
The corporate plan also declared the CIH’s intention to address the second point, launching a skills strategy. It asked the social housing sector to help it “map the knowledge, behaviour and skills needed to be a housing professional today”.
On policy, Ms Alafat has in recent years been firm in her calls for the government to suspend the Right to Buy for council homes, a policy that is very unpopular with most local authorities.
Last month, in her speech to Housing 2019, the CIH’s annual conference and exhibition, Ms Alafat told the government that this year’s Spending Review must “make a real difference” to ensure that more homes are built across the country.
Geraldine Howley, chair of the CIH’s governing board, said: “Terrie has been a truly transformative chief executive and an exemplary professional. Her contribution to CIH and the housing profession has been and will continue to be immeasurable.
“She confirmed her plan to retire some months ago, and with the financial results we will post this year she’s certainly going to end her time at CIH on a high note. Not just everybody at CIH but everybody in the whole of housing owes her a huge debt.”
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