Elly Hoult: ‘It’s really exciting that there is a focus on being professional’

“That really helped to shine a light on how important it is to be a professional,” she says.

“I work with brilliant people every day and, actually, there are a lot of qualified people already in the sector, particularly in housing and operations. But I think just making it more mandatory is going to be really good for housing.

“I think it’s really exciting now that there is a focus on being professional, and providing the level of service that our residents should expect.” 

“I still experience sexism. Not just passive sort of micro-sexism. Overt sexism, overt sexist comments”

Ms Hoult started her career as a supported housing officer at A2Dominion in Oxfordshire, working with vulnerable new mothers and babies, and young men on probation, people who had “really, really difficult starts in life”. These roles shaped her as a person and a manager.

“There are things that I learned in that role that I still apply in my leadership today: the importance of really listening, the importance of going out and spending time with residents, the importance of not making assumptions or patronising or acting in a paternal way,” she says.

“All of those things that I cut my teeth on in the early days have really shaped the direction of travel for me.”

With austerity and the retrenchment of public services, much has changed for the worse in housing in the past two decades. In other areas, improvement might have been expected, but progress has been slow. Housing was a very male-dominated sector when Ms Hoult started her career, and despite greater visibility of women leaders like herself, it still is today.

“I still experience sexism,” Ms Hoult says. “Not just passive sort of micro-sexism. Overt sexism, overt sexist comments.”

What does that look like? “Men touching my legs at a conference and being mistaken for the chief executive’s PA. They both happened this year,” she says.

She adds: “That’s just hugely disappointing to me. But the important thing about it is to call it out, and I will always do that.”

What she does remember about her early career was finding inspiration in Barbara Harrington, then group projects director at A2Dominion. 

“I distinctly remember thinking, ‘Oh wow’. It was one of those moments where I thought, ‘Women can get into senior positions as well, this is great’. It emphasised the importance to me of seeing people who looked like you in senior positions.”

Ms Hoult worked her way up through A2 Dominion, then into management at Orbit and Notting Hill Genesis (NHG), taking on the role of NHG’s group director of assets and sustainability in 2020.

Those early experiences were a motivating factor behind why Ms Hoult agreed to become first chair of CIH Futures, an advisory panel made up of young people in the housing sector. It was designed to give younger professionals a voice in the big cross-sector decisions from which they are often excluded. Her campaigning in this role succeeded in reducing the CIH membership fee for those under the age of 30. 

Ms Hoult has an “open-door policy” for young people in early-career jobs who want to ask her advice or seek her mentorship as they develop as housing professionals. “When you’re in a senior position, it’s an absolute duty of the role. I would never say no to somebody asking for help.”

Ms Hoult’s commitment to mentorship and development includes herself. For someone now in the prime years of her career, she shows no signs of settling into the executive chair and relying on what she already knows. She has undertaken numerous development courses in programme management, operations, workplace mediation and coaching and mentoring, among other skills.

“I have probably been to a conference or some event every year in the last 23 years. At every single event, I’ve heard the words ‘housing crisis’. I believe we’ve got a housing emergency”

Despite already holding a master’s degree in housing, she is now studying for another master’s-level qualification. “Don’t get me wrong, I basically have no life at the moment. I’m surprised I’m still married, to be honest,” she laughs.

Her current studies are in health, well-being and sustainable building at University College London, an expression of her commitment to playing her part in tackling the biggest issue housing faces: the climate crisis.

“It’s really important that we design for health. If COVID taught us anything, it’s about how we feel when we’re in our homes,” she says. “That’s not just physical, but access to green space, how it makes you feel mentally.”

Ms Hoult’s interest in sustainability was first piqued when she took over asset management at NHG in 2020, and realised the sector had understood too little of its responsibility on building for a sustainable future.

“For me to really be able to lead properly, I do feel like I need to understand an issue in quite a lot of depth,” she says.

“Perhaps the sustainability agenda wouldn’t have been at the top of the list 20 years ago, but that’s leading from the position of where we find ourselves now. I think that’s the beauty of leadership: you land where you land, and you’re faced with whatever choppy waters you fall into.”

Those waters couldn’t be rougher, given the state of the public sector and the lack of political investment in social housing over the past 15 years. The general election expected this year is being described as the housing election, but previous unfulfilled promises understandably make housing leaders nervous to assume things will change with a new administration.

“I have probably been to a conference or some event every year in the last 23 years. At every single event, I’ve heard the words ‘housing crisis’. I believe we’ve got a housing emergency at the moment.”

Like others, Ms Hoult demands an incoming government commit to much longer-term funding for social housing, not over five or 10 years, but the lifetime of a tenancy at least. But she also sees it as her job, as one of a new generation of housing leaders, to make the case to keep housing and decarbonisation at the top of the agenda, when other priorities, such as health and education, are facing crises of their own.

“We have to keep standing up, we have to continue to keep campaigning, to keep educating,” she says.

“And [we need] a long-term plan that reflects the gravity of the situation that is coming down the tracks quite fast.”