Yorkshire housing association appoints new chair

“It’s great to be joining a team which is so committed to providing safe, secure and warm homes for our customers and is making great progress towards realising our vision of being the best rural housing association in the country,” Ms Simpson said.

“Housing associations like Broadacres are fascinating because they are commercial businesses which need to be well run and able to manage their assets efficiently, in order to make an enormous, positive social contribution to the local communities they serve.

“In Broadacres’ specific case, it’s clear they are a very customer-focused organisation committed to building high-quality, new affordable homes and, just as importantly, investing in its existing homes.”

She is also a board member at Newcastle City Council’s ALMO, Your Homes Newcastle, and a trustee at homelessness charity St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Gail Teasdale, chief executive of Broadacres, said: “We are delighted to welcome Helen as the new chair of Broadacres’ board.

“Her considerable experience in the commercial world, combined with her knowledge of the social housing sector will prove invaluable as we make progress towards our vision of being the best rural housing provider in the UK.”

She thanked Mr Wilkie for being “instrumental in getting Broadacres to the strong position we are in now”.

Broadacres returned to the Regulator of Social Housing’s top grading for governance in February after having been deemed non-compliant in 2017 for failing to manage “foreseeable risks” within its building company subsidiary.