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Clarion appoints acting chief executive as Ruth Cooke takes ‘extended period of leave’
The UK’s largest housing association has appointed an acting chief executive, with its new boss Ruth Cooke taking an “extended period of leave”.
Clarion Housing Group has updated its website to name Clare Miller, its former director for governance and compliance, as acting group chief executive.
Ms Cooke, who took over as chief executive in April following the retirement of longstanding boss Keith Exford, is no longer named on the website.
A spokesperson for Clarion said Ms Cooke is “taking an extended period of leave”.
The spokesperson said they were unable to comment further and would not confirm if the leave period was indefinite.
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Ms Cooke joined Clarion having spent six years as the boss of Birmingham-based housing association Midland Heart.
Clarion, which was formed through the mega-merger of housing associations Affinity Sutton and Circle in 2016, is the UK’s largest housing association with 125,000 homes nationwide.
According to its most recent financial statements, the business has a turnover of £829m, producing a surplus of £157m.
It completed 1,263 homes in the year with 1,038 of them affordable.
The organisation has been seeking to turnaround the repairs service in some of the Circle Housing homes it inherited, following regulatory scrutiny before the merger. In March it was upgraded to the top rating for governance following improvements in this service.
Before working as governance and compliance director at Affinity Sutton, Ms Miller was an executive director at the Tenant Services Authority, with responsibility for housing association regulation.
She has also worked for the Housing Corporation, where she led on the financial regulation of associations in special measures.
