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Chief executive of Northern landlord to step down after 10 years
The chief executive of Great Places Housing Group has decided to step down after 30 years at the association, and ten years in the top job.
Matthew Harrison, who took on the top job in 2013 after serving for 20 years as executive director of development, plans to remain in post until the end of June 2024.
The process to recruit a successor is expected to begin in the next few days.
Great Places said that over the past 10 years, Mr Harrison has overseen the growth of the organisation to become “one of the most significant housing associations serving the North of England”.
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The housing association owns or manages more than 25,500 homes and had a turnover of £168m in 2022-23.
Mr Harrison led the merger between Great Places and Equity Housing Group in 2020.
He has also overseen a “significant” development programme that delivered “thousands of new homes across all tenures”, as well as the creation of Terra Nova, an in-house construction company.
Mr Harrison said: “Great Places is a financially strong and resilient organisation with a skilled executive team, which we intend to boost by recruiting a new chief property officer shortly.
“We are well placed to take on the challenges facing the sector now and into the future, and will set out a new corporate plan shortly that will outline the priorities for Great Places over the next three years.”
Mervyn Jones, chair of Great Places, said: “I would like to thank Matt for his many years of commitment and inspirational leadership.
“As a result of his diligent stewardship, he will leave Great Places in a strong position to continue to invest significantly in our customers’ homes, communities and in improving our services, meaning we can make delivering on our vision of great homes, great communities and great people a reality.”
Last year, a potential merger between Great Places and Mosscare St Vincent’s fell through.
Both Manchester based, the merger would have created a 33,000-home landlord.
But Great Places announced in September that the associations “have regretfully ended discussions to join together in a merger by transfer of engagements”.
Since the talks began, Great Places explained that the operating environment across the sector had “thrown up many unanticipated challenges”.
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