Steve has over 25 years of experience working in the social housing and regeneration, with a unique range of experience at senior management, executive and non-executive levels. In consultancy, Steve has experience of asset management, business plan enhancement, development, options appraisals and supporting people reviews. His background includes being Executive Director for New Business at Home Group, overseeing one of the largest development, asset management and market renting businesses in the country, and previously senior roles in housing management, supported housing/care provision and development/new business, including Anchor Trust and Sanctuary Housing Group. Steve has been for many years a Non-Executive Director of Community Links, a leading mental health services charity in Yorkshire, including a lengthy stint as chair.
Bill is an expert in financial planning and strategy, with over 20 years experience at a senior level. As Head of Finance at Accent Group over a period of growth from £15m turnover to £100m he was responsible for the Group’s financial business planning, and was a key member of the team successfully delivering mergers, commercial acquisitions and healthcare PFI projects.
He is an accredited business partner with Brixx Solutions business planning software, implementing and advising on financial business plans for a range of housing organisations, from one with just 180 units through to the creation of a new 48,000 unit group.
Bill has been involved with most of the Sector’s accounting policy changes over the last 20+ years, including the implementation of component accounting. His fundamental understanding of housing finance, including his knowledge of "how we’ve got to where we are now" is being put to good use by clients with the transition to IFRS under the 2014 Housing Finance SORP. His experience of managing Social Housing balance sheet valuations and extensive use of NPV methodology in assessing asset performance gives him an intuitive understanding of the HCA's VfM standard, and what it hopes to achieve for the Sector. This, combined with his audit and risk management skills give clients a practical understanding of the new governance regime for HAs, including asset & liability registers.
His diverse experience also includes anti-poverty work for housing providers, not-for-profit personal finance provision, a joint venture property development company, strategic performance benchmarking, £425m of refinancing packages, and the development and implementation of new group finance and procurement systems. Bill is also a founder member of River Bain Hydro Ltd, a community-owned hydro-electric scheme.
John has several decades achievement at the highest levels across the housing and regeneration field, including housing strategy, housing management, investment, and urban regeneration. In consultancy, he has successfully tackled a wide range of challenges for councils, housing associations and government agencies. His work ranges from sector-leading modern approaches to business planning, asset management, data analysis and option appraisal, through to anti-poverty strategy and practice. He is a national expert on strategic asset management and is the author of the Scottish Housing Regulator’s guidance on the subject. His past track record includes being Director of Investment and Regeneration for Glasgow Housing Association, in its most exciting early years, and, before that, a long spell at the top in Sheffield City Council, playing a leading role in achieving Sheffield’s highly regarded approach to housing and regeneration. John is a board member of Unity, a Leeds-based housing association with a proud BME and regeneration background.
Bill has over 20 years senior local authority management experience as Head of Housing for North East Derbyshire District Council that included developing the first housing PFI and several area based regenerations. Unusually, he also has several years recent experience of senior management within the private sector through leading multi-disciplinary teams on major housing and regeneration projects for major building contractors and capital investment consortiums. His latest move into consultancy enabled him to develop a methodology that creates long term sustainable business plan efficiencies from developing and delivering an integrated asset management strategy for social landlords. His work also includes service development, and strategic bid support for major projects and service contracts.
Rhona has extensive experience across a variety of business sectors. She has particular experience in the social housing sector and with commercial property transactions. Her current client portfolio includes:
Rhona also spent two years supporting Accent Group as their in-house VAT consultant where she provided VAT support on a major group restructuring programme, steered the business successfully through a VAT inspection and agreed a new, simplified, partial exemption method with HMRC.
One of Rhona’s key areas of work involves helping clients to resolve VAT disputes and areas of uncertainty. Her approach is to work constructively with HMRC wherever possible. She is one of only a few VAT practitioners with direct experience of HMRC’s new Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process and has recently successfully concluded two significant cases using the ADR route.
He has spent over 35 years specialising in the delivery of affordable housing within sustainable mixed tenure neighbourhoods both directly for and on behalf of local government, registered social landlords and private developers. With a career spanning public and private sectors including Registered Providers, Tony brings considerable experience and expertise in:
Organisational reviews for programme delivery functions for Registered Providers
