Housing 21 chair resigns after three months

In his resignation, Mr Dehal said that he had “valued the opportunity to contribute to this excellent organisation”.

He has worked at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse and had non-executive roles at the Ministry of Defence and Valuation Office Agency. Among his current roles, he is chair at the University of Derby.

The Housing 21 board had been in flux since October 2023, when former chair Stephen Hughes resigned having served his maximum term.

Mr Hughes was succeeded by Michael McDonagh, chief executive of PA Housing, who served as interim chair until Mr Dehal’s appointment in February.

Housing 21 also carried out a shake-up of its executive team in recent months to be “more responsive”.

Among the changes announced in December 2023, executive director of extra-care Kris Peach and executive director of retirement living Pam Mastrantonio were appointed managing directors of these services.

Interim chief financial officer Andrew Shaw took on the role permanently, while Amina Graham, previously executive director of people and systems, left after two-and-half years to “pursue other opportunities”.

In August 2023, Housing 21 abandoned a proposed merger with smaller landlord the ExtraCare Charitable Trust. Prior to the merger being called off, Standard & Poor’s said it would weaken the creditworthiness of the combined group.