Karen Preece joins the CHA board
We are delighted to welcome Karen Preece to the Church Housing Association Board, bringing more than two decades of housing, finance, and governance work.
Her career spans almost every aspect of the housing sector, giving her a broad understanding of the challenges and opportunities across the industry.
She has worked at Solihull Community Housing as Director of Finance and Investment and Company Secretary, where she played a key role in delivering new homes, major maintenance programmes and long-term asset management.
“The starting point for good homes is not simply the building itself, but the people who live in them,” Karen said. “Landlords need to have effective systems in place for tenants to share what they want, and then for the landlords to act on it.
“This is not a once in a lifetime conversation. It’s about building an ongoing relationship with tenants, listening to them regularly and making sure their views continue to shape what we do.”
She brings a strong financial perspective to the board, being a Chartered Accountant who has held senior finance and operational roles across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
“We have to make the numbers work, and we have to make homes that are sustainable,” she said. “Sustainability is ultimately about whether people can afford to live comfortably in their homes. I’ve looked at houses with mould on the walls, and that's not what we need to do. We need to make places that are actually fit for purpose.”
She has additionally worked with Longhurst Group, now Amplius, which gave her experience of housing development from a board perspective.
“A board member perspective is quite different in many respects from the doing bit. But actually I've sort of done both, which I think should be very helpful.”
One of the reasons Karen joined the CHA board is the unique position of the Church as a social housing provider.
“Churches are community builders. The CHA has an opportunity to look beyond the delivery of homes and draw on the wider networks, buildings, land, and people already connected to churches.
“It’s about making sure we use all of those opportunities, as well as churches recognising that they have a bit of land over here, which they can build a house on. Our job is to bring all the rest of it to it.
“There are so many moving parts to a development, huge chunks of it which you cannot control and that you have to sometimes just be patient. Part of what we have to do as a board is not to lose heart. We will get there, but it’s hard work.”