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Chief Executive

Employer
Altair Ltd
Location
Stratford, East London
Salary
Circa £100k per annum
Closing date
15 Feb 2021

Arhag was founded in 1979 to respond to an urgent need for housing and support amongst Britain’s fast-growing refugee and migrant communities. We now own and manage in excess of 950 homes across 14 London boroughs. These are mainly General Needs with a high proportion of Local Authority Nominations, but where we can we prioritise migrants and refugees from Africa, the Indian sub-continent, central and Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. We also have one supported housing scheme for people more traumatized from their experiences as refugees.

We employ about 22 people and our turnover is about £7m. We have won six national awards, including best tenant employment training programme. Where finances permit, we will continue to grow the organisation’s housing supply and income stream, to fund our social purpose. For now, our core business remains managing our residential properties, being a good landlord to our tenants and providing them with high-quality services.

In July 2019, we moved to a state of the art Hub building in Stratford to create a welcoming and pleasant environment where migrants and refugees can access the services they need under one roof. Six other specialist organisations have been contracted and are Arhag’s tenants and partners and we will be welcoming other tenants shortly. This major new initiative will lead to better services for our clients as well as providing a new amenity, serving and supporting the surrounding community in and around Newham.

The move to the Stratford Hub is part of our ambitious strategy to capitalise on our expertise in supporting refugees and migrants and become the “go to” organisation and national voice on refugee and migrant issues. Partnership working with our Hub colleagues to attract external funding, joint ventures to increase our stock holdings and maximise income streams and exploring opportunities to reduce costs will be the key to success in the next year and beyond.

Financially we are in a strong position despite the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had across the housing sector. As with most social housing providers, Arhag has seen a rise in tenant arrears since the pandemic started and access for our contractors to properties has been more difficult. However, operational cashflow remains positive, the costs of the move to the Hub have been fully paid for and £2m of debt has been paid off since last year-end.

We are now in a position to recruit a permanent chief executive who can consolidate our growth and maximise the opportunities it will bring as well as improve our performance in some key areas. We are seeking an experienced leader with a firm focus on quality and a people-centred approach.

Experience of working at executive level in social housing or a closely related sector such as health and working alongside tenants, a Management Board and partners is essential. We also need someone who is an excellent communicator and enjoys working with a diverse range of people with different views, perspectives and priorities.

Our new chief executive will be ambitious for Arhag as well as reflecting our values as being those of an organisation which is proud to have and retain its social heart and purpose. Equality and diversity are intrinsic to the way that Arhag works and we will particularly welcome applications from diverse individuals/individuals from different backgrounds.

Further information

For further information about this opportunity, please go to: https://altairltd.co.uk/job/alt295/

If, after reading the recruitment pack, you would like a confidential discussion please contact Sarah Palmer, Head of Recruitment at Altair: mobile 07806 602933 or email: sarah.palmer@altairltd.co.uk

The closing date for applications is: 10:00am Monday 15 February 2021.

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