Voting opens for next CIH vice president

Putting professionalism at the heart of a community emergency

Housing matters to me because, every day, I see the difference it makes when it works well, and the consequences when it doesn’t. I’m standing for vice president to make a difference, ensuring CIH membership and engagement is valued and recognised as a core competence – one that makes a real difference to people and communities.

I chose housing as a vocation back in the 90s and I’m proud to be a housing professional with a variety of skills, abilities and experience to bring to the role. I’ve built my career by taking opportunities to develop across operational and strategic roles within the housing environment. From my first job to my current role as a service manager with Fife Council, working at the heart of both a local and national housing emergency, I remained committed to continually improving services because I believe that good quality housing, delivered by professional services, provide the foundation for better lives and stronger communities.

My experience in a large local authority, combined with my board experiences in a strategically active community-based housing association as well as my CIH governance roles, has provided me with extensive housing insight and a focus on improving services to vulnerable individuals and communities. My passion for homelessness prevention and the changes I’ve influenced within Fife and nationally is based on a strong personal commitment to enhance the way housing and connected systems improve outcomes and the places we live.

I believe I can contribute to CIH nationally, in a way the professional body has supported me in my professional journey. During my involvement with CIH Scotland as both a member and CIH Scotland board member, I’ve contributed to discussions that shape our profession, engage with members and support the development of housing as a career. I firmly believe CIH is at its best when it connects people, shares learning and gives us a collective voice.

We are in the midst of an emergency which extends well beyond the housing system, but I believe we need to:

• Be more confident in taking a whole systems approach, bringing services around people and communities which include large scale strategic approaches through to community-based innovation
• Close the gap between our ambition and customers experience, strengthening links between strategic thinking and delivery
• Support our people, recognising the profession is full of committed, skilled individuals doing difficult jobs well. CIH plays a vital role in building that confidence and capability across the sector.

If elected, I will approach the role with integrity and commitment, grasping the opportunity to build the professional network and raise the profile of the housing sector. I believe we need to work with, but also challenge, government and other bodies and make building better communities a focal point, using the credibility of our profession to generate a collective commitment to improve lives.

We have an opportunity to strengthen our profession. My drive is to be clearer in our purpose, stronger in our collaboration and more consistent in what we deliver to support members.

As we enter a new era and phase, I feel I have the passion, knowledge, experience and understanding to represent the importance of all diverse needs, remove the barriers in learning, and educate the public sector in diversity, inclusion, tackling ageism, funding constraints, regulatory compliance and increased governance.

Being dyslexic myself and facing my own educational needs, as well as being a single mum of two boys with additional needs, I am keen to remove as many barriers as possible, and to promote a new way of working and educating.

On my journey, I have been privileged to gain voluntary experience of over 15 years, working with the most amazing people and colleagues from all over the world. This has given me a sound insight and knowledge around poverty, community amenities, funding cuts and cultures.

I am passionate about ensuring the challenges we face are recognised, as they are key fundamentals in the housing sector.

I have over 11 years of experience listening to and advocating tenants’ voices, scrutinising policy procedures, and adapting and changing the way housing associations do things to include tenants’ perspectives and understanding of how to deal with issues effectively

In the last 12 months I've worked alongside board members, directors and steering groups to tackle key issues. This has given me an underpinning knowledge of different beliefs and has further instilled in me that it shouldn't matter where you’re from or what you do – you should be given the equal chance as everyone else in this world.

Thank you for reading my statement, please vote for me to be your next CIH vice president.

I’ve worked in supported housing for over 27 years — a career that has shaped not only what I do, but who I am. It gives me purpose, challenges me to keep learning, and strengthens my belief in the power of good quality housing to change lives. I feel proud to have played my part in a sector that matters so deeply.

I feel a strong connection to CIH’s purpose. Its mission speaks to what drives me: building a better future, working towards a society where everyone has a place to call home. It’s something worth constantly striving for.

I make the most of what CIH membership offers, for my own development and so I can give back. Becoming a CIH Fellow was a proud milestone. Since then, I have continued to contribute, being co-chair of the CIH Homelessness Policy Forum, and regularly speaking at national and regional events, including the Northern Housing Festival and CIH Brighton.

Through building trust and credibility, I’ve been able to influence government policy and advocate for the value of the work we do — and for the people whose lives are shaped by it.

People may know me as “the veteran guy” having successfully campaigned for the government to fund veteran homelessness services, £28 million over a six-year period, or “the Supported Housing Regulatory Oversight guy” having led on cross sector responses to the consultation to mitigate the unintended consequences of something that can/should be a force for good.

But these are just a part of a bigger commitment: shaping a housing profession that’s skilled, credible, grounded in values and achieves results. As a member of the DLUHC Professionalisation Working Group, I helped shape the requirements of the Competency and Conduct Standard. I believe that housing should be a profession of choice, but qualifications alone are not enough. The message from tenants was clear: people remember not just what we do, but how we make them feel.

The belief that the way we lead can bring out the best in people and creates better outcomes has been a constant throughout my career.

I’ve championed strengths-based approaches for people experiencing homelessness, making a difference to the lives of thousands of people. It starts from a simple but powerful truth: everyone has strengths, deserves dignity, and should be seen as more than the challenges they face. The same is true of colleagues. When we recognise potential in people, we create the conditions for growth, confidence, and lasting change.

If elected, that’s the leadership movement I want to build, focused on people’s strengths and living our values, one that makes leadership more human, inclusive, consistent, and accountable — and improves colleague and resident experiences.

The evidence is clear: development based on people’s strengths builds stronger engagement and better customer experience. When leaders recognise strengths, live their values, and truly listen, colleagues are more likely to thrive, services become stronger, and residents feel the difference in real and lasting ways.

Please consider voting for me and let’s “Lead from Strength, Live Our Values.”

I am standing for the CIH vice-president role as a potential ambassador for the growing sectoral debate about culture, attitudes and behaviours – essential with the introduction of Competency and Conduct into the regulatory framework. My position as the campaign director for Stop Social Housing Stigma (SSHS) means that I could play a supportive role in turning professionalisation standards into reality for residents and staff. 

SSHS is a tenant-led campaign that I have worked with since 2024. With the CIH, academics and others, we have developed the Tackling Stigma Journey Planner as a tool to help tenants and landlords work together to tackle stigma. Its need is demonstrated by the results of our national tenant stigma survey – published recently in our Widespread, Structural and Deeply Felt report. More than two thirds of tenants feel stigmatised living in social housing and over half because of something their landlord does. However, our aim is not to hit anyone over the head with challenging messages, but to inspire tenants and staff to realise that change is possible, desirable and can be developed incrementally within existing systems.

Whilst it is residents who feel the effect of stigma most keenly on a daily basis – stigma also affects staff working in the sector, potentially impacting staff recruitment and retention. This means that both staff and residents have an interest in tenure blind approaches to housing. Our staff engagement at all levels tells us that many want to see cultural change.  

With an unconventional career in housing, bound together by a firm conviction that housing is best delivered in partnership between residents and staff, my journey started in the 1980s as a tenant of a Registered Provider housing co-operative in Birmingham. That led me - via the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (where I was head of policy) - into leading the National Tenant Organisations bringing together national tenant bodies to work with government and others, and to involvement with the first National Tenant Voice and the post Grenfell A Voice for Tenants. Throughout, I have worked with numerous housing association and local authority tenants and their landlords on various aspects of tenant related activities and housing services.  

I am conversant with most areas of housing governance, finance, asset management, compliance, and housing services – and have provided training in most of these areas. I have strengths in governance, legal models, housing and other policy development, housing strategy, financial management, and housing service delivery. I have detailed knowledge of the housing sector, of how government works, and of how the sector operates – both in housing associations and local authorities – as well as the challenges it faces and how landlords operate and provide services. I am passionately committed to helping tenants and landlords work with each other to improve culture and service delivery.     

In conclusion, my candidature is about furthering much needed cultural debate in the sector; a debate that the CIH is already a player in but which I hope would further benefit from my involvement.

I am standing for CIH Vice President because I care deeply about housing and the people who make housing work.

Housing is about dignity and justice; home and belonging. It is about whether people have the foundations they need to live well and thrive.

Through my roles as Co-Chair of CIH’s Homelessness and Supported Accommodation Policy Group, as a member of CIH’s Policy Advisory Committee, and through my work at Cornerstone Place, I see both the immense pressures facing housing professionals and the extraordinary commitment, skill and compassion across our profession every day.

Housing is facing a defining moment, but I believe it is also a moment of real possibility. Across the sector, I meet people who believe in the power of housing to create dignity, stability and opportunity. That is why I am standing.

Growing up in apartheid South Africa, I remember asking: why do some people get left behind, and what can we do about it? That question has shaped my career in social impact and housing.

After an MBA at the University of Cape Town and London Business School, I worked across social investment, venture philanthropy, impact measurement and systems change before co-founding Cornerstone Place, delivering 100 per cent social housing at zero per cent profit. We call this Impact First Social Housing®, partnering with local authorities, charities and asset-locked bodies to keep assets in the hands of the impact makers, delivering long-term community benefit.

Through helping build the social value movement, including a decade as chair of Social Value UK and co-chair of Social Value International, I have learned something I believe deeply: what we choose to value shapes the systems we build.

If elected vice president, in collaboration with CIH, I would seek to focus my presidential campaign on homelessness and temporary accommodation (TA). TA is one of the clearest signs that the wider housing system is failing too many people. It sits at the intersection of housing, health, education, childhood development, finance and community wellbeing. Behind the statistics are people: children growing up without stability, families trapped in unsuitable accommodation, vulnerable adults without the right support, and housing professionals doing everything they can in systems under immense pressure.

I want to help harness the renewed focus on social housing, professionalism, resident voice, prevention and long-term investment. The housing profession has a vital role to play in shaping better systems, not only by building and managing homes, but by bringing people together around dignity, prevention, stewardship and genuinely affordable housing.

Professionalism is not only about technical competence; it’s also about integrity, empathy, accountability and public service. As vice president, I would seek to support and celebrate housing professionals who continue to lead with courage and compassion in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

I would use the role to encourage greater collaboration across sectors and disciplines, particularly bringing housing into closer conversation with health, social care, climate resilience, education and community development.

Most of all, I would seek to bring hope, because I believe housing has the power to transform lives and communities.