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For-profit landlord appoints former DLUHC and Peabody boss as new chair
A for-profit housing association has appointed a former Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) director and Peabody boss as its new chair.
Richard McCarthy has been named as the new chair of Funding Affordable Homes (FAH) amid a number of changes to the landlord’s board.
He steps up from up from vice-chair and replaces Keith Jenkins, who stood in the role since 2015.
FAH is a fund advised by Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate Investment Management (REIM).
Mr McCarthy said: “With thanks to Keith Jenkins for his excellent stewardship of the FAH board, I am delighted to now step into the role of chair.
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“I look forward to working with Edmond de Rothschild REIM to take the affordable housing strategy through its next phase of growth – delivering high-quality, efficient affordable homes that are urgently required across the country.”
He has a wealth of experience within the sector, most recently as chair of Andium Homes, a housing provider owned by the Jersey Government. Mr McCarthy was also director general of housing and planning at DLUHC, chief executive of Peabody Trust, and chair of the National Housing Federation.
In 2009, He received a CBE for services to housing and planning.
Two new board members have also been enlisted to enhance the legal, investment and financial expertise of the FAH board: DJ Dhananjai, chief investment officer of Edmond de Rothschild REIM, and Karen Cooksley, a planning and housing lawyer with more than three decades of experience.
Mr Dhananjai heads currently Edmond de Rothschild REIM’s UK operations, focusing on residential strategies such as affordable housing and build-to-rent. Ms Cooksley is a specialist in reputational risk management, social value and governance, and acts as a mentor in both the legal and property professions.
Founded in 1953, REIM specialises in private banking and asset management, catering to an international clientele of families, entrepreneurs and institutional investors.
The appointment of a well-known sector figure to FAH’s board comes as a new report found that the number of homes owned by for-profit registered providers is set to treble to 86,000 by the end of 2028.
Knight Frank’s latest affordable housing report also noted an increase in the number of private sale homes being switched to shared ownership or other affordable tenures, with a quarter of properties absorbed or sold in the first three months of 2024 in London switched to affordable.
According to the property consultancy, there were 69 for-profit registered providers at the start of 2024, a number that has more than tripled in the past decade.
For-profits now own 29,272 affordable homes – a figure that has grown 40% since 2022.
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