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Great Places recruits new finance boss from larger Manchester neighbour
Great Places Housing Group has appointed the finance boss of a fellow Manchester landlord to be its chief financial officer.
The 25,000-home group has named Onward’s Mike Gerrard as it new finance chief. He is expected to start at Great Places in the new year.
Mr Gerrard, who has spent the past four years at 35,000-home Onward, will replace Great Places’ long-serving finance boss Phil Elvy.
The news comes less than three weeks after it was revealed that Great Places’ proposed 34,000-home merger with another Manchester landlord, Mosscare St Vincent’s (MSV), had ended.
The tie-up, first announced a year ago, was hit by delays and expected to complete at the end of September.
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Had the MSV merger gone ahead, Mr Elvy, whose job title was executive director of finance, was initially lined up to be chief financial officer at the newly expanded organisation.
However in February, Great Places announced that Mr Elvy planned to step down this summer after 17 years with the group as he decided that the time was “right for a change”.
In subsequent filings, Great Places said Mr Elvy planned to retire, but had deferred his departure until a chief financial officer was appointed.
Matthew Harrison, chief executive of Great Places, said Mr Gerrard “brings a wealth of finance experience from comparable customer centric organisations”.
He added: “I’m certain that his expertise will be crucial in helping to drive forward Great Places to deliver our vision of creating great homes and communities.”
Prior to Onward, Mr Gerrard spent three years at Barnet Council-owned The Barnet Group and had stints at Arthur Anderson and PwC in his early career.
In its last full-year to the end of March 2023, Great Places reported a surplus of £21.4m on turnover of £167.8m.
The association has a G1/V2 grading from the Regulator of Social Housing after being among a wave of landlords to be downgraded at the end of 2022 due to the wider economic conditions.
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