How I got hooked on housing

Serendipity! I wanted to be a social worker, but my undergraduate placement in a social service department was cancelled. One of my lecturers called in a favour with a housing association, so I spent a few weeks shadowing a housing management team - and was hooked. Luckily for me, Knowsley council was recruiting graduate housing trainees the year I graduated, and I secured one of only three jobs. I immediately registered for CIH membership and was supported to gain my professional qualification (the old ‘PQ’ in those days) and am now a proud CIH Fellow. I will forever be grateful for that first opportunity as it led to a wonderful career for me.  

I spent many happy years working in housing and neighbourhood management, progressing to be an area manager with Helena Housing (now Torus). Then in 2008 my career path changed path when I was given the opportunity to work in a development team, in a new role designed to ensure that new build and regeneration aspirations were aligned with local needs and that neighbourhood teams were key players in decision making. I worked for a director who empowered me and encouraged me to try new things and get as much experience as I could. This led me to take on responsibility for developing a new build sales service and to learn as much as I could about affordable home ownership and to become a specialist in shared ownership.  

After working as head of sales for two North West housing associations, I took up a new post with Riverside in September 2020 to lead its national sales programme. I enjoy being pushed out of my comfort zone - and joining such a big organisation during a pandemic has certainly tested that! But I would recommend it to anyone; great opportunities don’t come around too often, and you have to focus on your future and seize them when they do. 

What my job involves 

It’s been an exciting time to join as Riverside has recently fundamentally changed how the home ownership division operates, and I feel I can really make a difference to how we do things and improve our customers’ experience. I joined at a critical time for shared ownership, as the sector gets to grips with what the new shared ownership model will look like, and this is keeping me very busy. 

I have the best job in the world; it’s interesting and varied and there is always something new to learn. As well as a new-build sales programme, I’m also responsible for the resale and tenanted sales services and this includes staircasing, lease extensions, Right to Buy and Right to Acquire sales. So it enables me to use all of my housing management and sales experience in one role. 

A key part of my job is to work closely with Riverside’s regional development and housing teams to explore all the new opportunities that come into the business, contributing market intelligence and opinion on types of homes we build, tenure mix and values. It’s a key role in ensuring we build high quality homes in the right places for a range of different customers. I also spend a lot of my time reviewing performance data: new-build sales is a target driven service, and I ‘m always looking for ways to improve to ensure we are achieving our sales forecasts and KPIs. 

Skills and knowledge needed  

• Good all-round knowledge of how a housing association operates: when new homes are built we hand over to either a housing management or leasehold team, so it is important to understand the implications for those responsible for the long-term stewardship of what we build. Unlike volume house builders, we don’t walk away after the last sale. So design, specification, space standards, environment are all important in creating successful places and insuring our homes remain popular. 
• Ability to collaborate and be a team player: most problems need a cross-departmental solution so you need to be able to work effectively with others. 
• Be brave: building homes for sale always carry risk and sometimes you need to take chances. So do your homework, make evidence-based decisions and have vision. But you also need to be able to say no when appropriate. 
• Be strategic and see the bigger picture: understand how what you are doing contributes to corporate, local and national agendas. 

• Be able to understand and interpret lots of different information so that new opportunities can be assessed quickly. 

Tips 

• Build a good network - people you can learn from, who can guide you, who will champion you and potentially open the door to your next career move. 

• Get a mentor: this has been such an important part of my career path. And when you can, pay it back by mentoring others. 
• Always be inquisitive, ask questions, read around your subject; research papers, articles, blogs, best practice (CIH website is great for this); try and get a range of experience until you find something you love. (It was shared ownership for me.) 
• Be flexible; volunteer for difficult projects; and move sideways to get different experience.