My RHA
Goodbye Anne
24th March 2023 | posted in News
On 5th April 2023, Anne Rowlands will retire as Chief Executive of Railway Housing Association, having spent the last 14 years in this role. We sat down with Anne and asked her to reflect on her time with the Association.
Joining Railway Housing Association…
I was working as Deputy Chief Executive of St John of God Hospitaller Services in Darlington when I saw the advert for Chief Executive of Railway Housing Association. I knew about them through my previous work with housing associations and so was aware of their good reputation.
I was among a short-list of four people and I was delighted when I was offered the job. I think the Board saw me as a safe pair of hands and they had a lot of trust in me because even before I officially started as CEO, they asked me to be part of the interview panel for a new Finance Director and let me make the final decision. I chose Joanne Watson, and she is still at Railway now so it was definitely the right decision. We made a great partnership from day one.
The early years…
The Association was in good shape when I took over and I didn’t want to come in and change things for the sake of it, but one of the first things Joanne and I did was standardising board reports. I was lucky to inherit a good staff team and we had just started developing again when I joined, following the appointment the year before me of Andrea Abbott, who was in charge of our development programme, and still is today.
Half of the Board had links to the railway when I joined and it was clear they were good custodians committed to the future of the Association, which helped me immensely.
At the time, we were not an organisation that was good at shouting about all the good things we did, so that was another thing I changed and we started sharing our story through our website, the media, resident newsletters, and eventually social media.
We may have been too successful at getting our name out there because we had various ‘suitors’ who would have been delighted for us to merge with them and I was regularly invited out to lunch to hear them make the case of why this would be beneficial. Needless to say, we never had an intention for this to happen, so the lunch invitations quickly dried up, which I was happy about!”
Proudest moments…
I am leaving with lots of happy memories and achievements I am very proud of, so it’s difficult to pick out specific things, but our centenary year in 2019 was one particular highlight. We did so many great things throughout the year to mark our anniversary, culminating in a trip on the Wensleydale heritage railway, which was amazing, particularly because it involved so many residents. The trip was kindly sponsored by the Darlington Building Society.
Resident involvement is something I have always been very passionate about and I have always liked to meet as many of our residents as possible, including chairing the meetings of our resident focus groups or talking to them at our regular residents’ conferences.
As part of the recruitment process which led to the appointment of my successor, Matthew Sugden, our resident scrutiny panel formed part of the interview panel and one of them said to Matthew “What we are looking for is someone like Anne, because she’s all right.”. When I heard that I knew I must have done something right over the years!
I have also been fortunate to have been CEO when we have undertaken some amazing developments, none more so than The Sidings in Darlington which included the sympathetic restoration of a Listed railway engine shed from 1844 close to the historic Stockton to Darlington railway line. That was our biggest development since the 1980s and it was credit to Andrea and her team for delivering what has become an award-winning scheme and to the bravery of our Board for approving it in the first place because many other housing associations would have shied away from it.
And even now, as I am leaving, we are just about to welcome the last group of residents to another heritage redevelopment, this time at Bishop Auckland where we have transformed the former King James school where Stan Laurel used to attend into an attractive apartment and bungalow development.
Leading the Association through a Pandemic…
Nothing could have prepared us for Covid-19, but I remain immensely proud of how we reacted to this. I remember Karen, my PA, and Stuart, our IT manager, having to go to Currys to buy 20 laptops just before the first lockdown came into effect so people could begin working from home.
I would then go into the office by myself one day a week to open the post and send out any correspondence that staff needed to go. I was concerned I may get stopped by the police and asked what I was doing so I always carried my identification so I could explain, but thankfully that never happened.
We adapted very quickly to the situation and the feedback we received from residents was very positive, although I am sure we would all agree that we would prefer never to have to go through something like that every again.
Ironically, we never went back as a group to our old head office after the pandemic because that building is being demolished as part of the refurbishment of Darlington railway station, and we now have our new office in West Park whilst still promoting hybrid working.
The Railway Housing Association staff…
I can’t speak highly enough about the people I have worked with over the last 14 years and the fact many are still here tells you all you need to know.
Everyone knows their roles so well and are good at what they do, which has made by job as CEO so much easier.
It would be unfair to single anyone out, but I must pay credit to my PA Karen. She is the glue that holds everything together and has provided fantastic support to me, the Board, senior management team and staff.
On retiring and the future…
Apart from time on maternity after the birth of my daughters, I have worked continuously for 42 years in Housing and Social Care and I think 14 years is long enough as CEO. With so much going in in the housing world, I felt the time was right to go and to hand things over to Matt. I know I am leaving the Association in good hands.
I plan to do more travelling with my husband, get back into running, having completed the Great North Run a few years ago, and I won’t entirely be saying goodbye to housing as I am Chair of the Board at another housing association and will obviously be keeping in touch with all the friends I have made at Railway.
