About Yorkshire Housing Group
Get To Know The Directors
Mervyn Jones Group Chief Executive (starting Summer 2008)
A new Chief Executive has been appointed to lead Yorkshire Housing Limited (YHL) and deliver services to over 35,000 customers.
Mervyn Jones, Chief Executive at Willow Park Housing Trust in Manchester for eight years, will join YHL in June to lead the Group.
Mervyn said: “I am extremely pleased and proud to be taking this position at Yorkshire Housing. The Group has grown rapidly in recent years, and I am excited about leading YHL in the next phase of its development”.
“In my previous experience I have worked closely with tenants, residents and local authorities and I understand the importance of delivering excellent customer services to people living in successful neighbourhoods. I hope to continue this in my new role.”
Mervyn has worked in the housing industry for over 30 years after graduating with a first class degree in Urban and Regional Planning in 1977. He started work in London, before moving to the North in 1983 as Development Director for South Yorkshire Housing Association. Before joining Willow Park, Mervyn worked as Director for Harvest Housing Group.
Mervyn has been a Board Member of the National Housing Federation and was a member of the Tenant Involvement Commission.
Mervyn added: “I will be reinforcing the Group’s efforts to deliver efficiency, improve the quality and effectiveness of our customer services and continue to provide excellent homes for communities throughout Yorkshire.”
Originally from Wales Mervyn is married with two daughters and now lives in Sheffield.
David Bolton Craven Housing & YHF Director
Experience: David has been with Yorkshire Housing for four years. David is responsible for Craven Housing Association which provides landlord services to over 1500 households across the Craven District in North Yorkshire covering rural Market Towns and Villages. In addition the Association delivers the housing needs, advice and homeless service on behalf of the District Council.
The Association is a consistently high performer with top quartile performance in arrears, voids and responsive repairs. The Association also has a number of In house operational teams covering Property & Community services working in both Craven and Bradford.
David is also lead Director for Yorkshire Housing Foundation which provides advice, support and home improvement services to over 6000 vulnerable customers annually operating from regional offices across Yorkshire in Barnsley, York, Harrogate, Sheffield & Selby.
Before joining Yorkshire Housing, David worked for BPCH, Progress Housing Group and Northern Counties HA in various senior position’s covering repairs, maintenance, estate management & supported housing. David received a Fellowship from the Instituteof Maintenance Building Management in 2004 for his achievements in social housing repairs and maintenance over the past 10 years. David was one of the youngest members in the UK to receive this accolade.
Grace Dalley Business Services Director
Experience: Grace has been with Yorkshire Housing since August 2003 and manages the Business Services portfolio of Human Resources, Information Technology, Marketing and Governance. Grace is also the Company Secretary.
Grace has a strong HR focus and is responsible for identifying, planning, implementing and developing HR strategies and systems. To date this has included TUPE; restructuring; pay and conditions; staff training and development; performance appraisals; health and safety; staff satisfaction surveys; occupational health/counselling; employee relations and Investors in People.
Prior to joining Yorkshire Housing Grace worked for the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education where she was responsible for managing the Finance, Information Technology, Personnel and Administration departments. One of her key responsibilities here involved financial modelling and business planning.
Tansy Hepton Interim Chief Executive
Experience: Tansy joined YHG as Group Finance Director in July 2005 after 4 years at the Housing Corporation as Director of Regulation in the North. She is a chartered accountant and spent most of her career before the Housing Corporation working in the financial services sector, focusing on treasury, risk management and planning.
Guy Millichamp Interim Finance Director
Guy was appointed as Interim Finance Director for a 6 month period from January 2008, following Tansy’s appointment as Interim Chief Executive. Guy was previously Group Treasurer from January 2006, after joining the team following the merger with Brunel Housing where he was Director of Financial & Information Services from 2001.
His previous experience has been mostly in the not-for-profit sector. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Binder Hamlyn, he had roles with Oxfam, the University College of York St John and English Churches Housing before joining Brunel.
Garry Smith - Interim Director of Development & Regeneration
Garry was appointed as Interim Development Director in January pending the appointment of a permanent director. His substantive post is as Area Manager of the Groups Eastern Area Team. He recently joined Yorkshire Housing from Places for People where he worked in housing management and support services in the North East since 1996.
Prior to that Garry has had 10 years of housing and regeneration experience with Three Rivers Housing Association and Derwentside District Council.
Roy Wallington Housing Services Director
Experience: Roy has been with Yorkshire Housing since 2000. He manages a team of 700 staff dedicated to delivering high quality and responsive housing management and maintenance services to 12,000 households in Yorkshire as well as care services dedicated to the needs of 400 older people, people with learning disabilities and those with mental health needs in Bradford and Calderdale. The housing service delivers above average performance in key areas such as repair response times, rent arrears control and the letting of empty homes; in a recent survey, 88% of customers expressed satisfaction with their housing service. Our care services are consistently highly rated by both our customers, their carers, our inspectors and other stakeholders. Recent successes for the Housing Services team include delivery of the PFI concession to improve and manage 1,500 homes on the Swarcliffe estate in Leeds, welcoming Brunel Housing Association into the Group, further developing our refugee, asylum seeker and homeless services via our dedicated service Safe Haven and celebrating the opening of Ollie's Cafe in Bradford city centre, a popular facility staffed by people with a learning disability.
Before joining Yorkshire Housing, Roy worked for the City of York Council where he was responsible for key service delivery areas such as housing benefits, capital investment and repairs, tenant involvement and empowerment, information technology and quality assurance. He also held the policy and strategic planning brief for both social care and housing.