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Swan chief executive to retire after 28 years in role
Swan Housing Association has announced that its chief executive is to retire after 28 years in the role.
John Synnuck will step down from the 11,500-home landlord in March next year, Swan announced yesterday.
He has led the Essex-based group since it was formed in 1994, growing it from a 2,000-home organisation.
In 2019, Mr Synnuck won the Lifetime Achievement in Housing award at the Housing Heroes event.
The announcement comes a week after Swan named a new chair and a year and a half after it appointed a new deputy chief executive.
In its last full-year to March 2021, the association reported a jump in pre-tax surplus to £32.9m on an increased turnover of £190.6m.
In a statement to the markets, the landlord said: “As Swan continues to emerge positively from COVID-19, it confirmed that with a new chair and corporate strategy in place, John felt confident he could retire knowing Swan was in a strong position to continue delivering its transformative work.”
Mr Synnuck said: “I am hugely proud of the way the entire Swan team have responded to the extraordinary situation in the past 18 months, focusing on providing services to our customers and on how we can still continue to deliver on our ambitions as an organisation.
“On forming Swan Housing Association in 1992, we then took around 2,000 homes in Basildon from the Commissioner for New Towns two years later and began our first regeneration.
“As I move towards my retirement, I am leaving an organisation which, through the dedication of its staff and joint working with a range of partners, is achieving regeneration at scale, pushing forward with innovative ways to increase housing delivery including modular housing, all while focusing on putting our customers first.”
The organisation has acquired two modular housebuilding factories – one for light gauge steel, which was acquired last year, and one for cross-laminated timber (CLT) which was bought in 2017.
It added the steel factory after post-Grenfell regulations limited the use of CLT for high-rise buildings. It built 708 homes in 2019/20, but chose not to respond to Inside Housing’s most recent Biggest Builders survey.
In 2017, it replaced L&Q as the regeneration partner for an £800m development in Purfleet, Essex, which will involve the construction of 2,800 homes as well as a TV and film studio.
The association was also signed up by Southend Council to carry out a major regeneration of the Queensway Estate in 2019, which will involve the construction of 1,600 new homes.
In January last year, Swan was downgraded to a G2 rating for governance by the Regulator of Social Housing as it warned the landlord needed to strengthen its stress-testing. It currently holds a V2 and G2 rating.
It was also hit with a downgrade from ratings agency S&P in November last year due to its “high sales exposure”.
Swan said the recruitment process for Mr Synnuck’s successor will be “announced shortly”.
