Peter Marsh was appointed as Chief Executive of the new social housing regulator, the Tenant Services Authority (TSA). Peter Marsh will assume the post of Chief Executive Designate of the TSA from 1st July 2008, but will continue his current role as Deputy Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation until the formal establishment of the new regulator, which is planned for this December.
Peter Marsh said:
"I am honoured to have been offered the opportunity of leading the Tenant Services Authority in its mission to champion the needs of social tenants, and to challenge landlords to offer the very best services and promote choice in service delivery.
"The Tenant Services Authority will play a key role in defining a new standards framework that will place the provision of the highest quality services at its heart.
"I believe that the need to ensure landlords remain financially viable has never been as important as it is today to ensure they can deliver high quality services and develop new homes for decades to come. The TSA will challenge mediocrity and complacency; acting as a force for change while promoting excellence and choice."
Biography
Peter Marsh has been Deputy Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation since 2007. Prior to that he was Director of Resources at the Corporation.
Before joining the Corporation, he worked in Further Education as Deputy Principal at City and Islington College, London, and prior to that at Gateshead College, Tyne and Wear.
Previously he worked for KPMG, in its North East public sector team, and the Audit Commission, auditing Local Authorities and the NHS in the north east of England.
Robert Napier will become the first Chair of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which has been set up to support regeneration and drive forward the delivery of new affordable homes.
Accepting the post, Robert Napier said:
"Since the decision was taken to create the Homes and Communities Agency, I have been a passionate believer in the added benefits for people and communities that it will deliver in housing and regeneration.
The HCA will build on the strengths of English Partnerships and The Housing Corporation to create new and more innovative ways of meeting the challenges facing us. Our work with local authorities to underpin their efforts to deliver better quality places will be one of our most important tasks."
Biography
Robert Napier took up the post of Chairman of English Partnerships in January 2008, having been a Non-Executive Director since March 2004. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Met Office.
He was Chief Executive of WWF-UK, the UK arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature from 1999 to April 2007. Before that he spent 16 years at Redland plc, where he was successively Financial Director, Managing Director and Chief Executive.
He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Anglian Water Services and is also Chairman of the trustees of the Carbon Disclosure Project.
He was formerly Chairman of the CBI Transport Policy Committee and President of the National Council of Building Material Producers.
David Orr, Chief Executive of the English National Housing Federation was elected president of the European Liaison Committee for Social Housing at the organisation's General Assembly held in Gothenburg Sweden.
The meetings in Gothenburg were the first in a two-stage celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the organisation, which now gathers 46 regional and national federations in 19 EU member states.
These federations together represent over 39.000 public, voluntary and cooperative social housing enterprises which provide over 21 million homes on a non-for-profit basis across the European Union.
In his acceptance speech, David Orr called for support from the Assembly for what he sees as the two key priorities for the social housing sector over his forthcoming two-year term; preparation for the UNFCCC summit on Climate Change to take place in Copenhagen in 2009 and the CECODHAS campaign for the 2009 European Parliamentary Election.
The Assembly also reached a final agreement on a common vision of Europe which would guide the work of the organization under David Orr's presidency. The agreed vision, he said, is based on a Europe "which provides access to decent and affordable housing for all in communities which are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable."
On Climate Change, David Orr spoke not only of the huge potential of the social housing sector to cut C02 emissions in existing social housing stock, but also of its responsibility to take the lead in the construction of green and sustainable homes and aspire to the highest possible environmental standards. He called on members to "continue our work to cut energy consumption and fuel bills in the homes we provide, but also to reinforce our broader role in establishing long-term environmentally sustainable communities and cities."