Charles Clayton, chief executive of 6600-home Shaftesbury Housing Association, left two weeks ago. The reasons are unclear.
Clayton was unavailable for comment and a spokesman for the association declined to say when Clayton handed in his notice, why he left or for whom he would work in future.
Barry Hampson, the Shaftesbury chair, said in a statement that Clayton's conduct had been "exemplary" but coincided with "significant difficulties as a result of circumstances that existed prior to the commencement of his employment".
Little more than four months ago, commission inspectors highlighted poor management of empty homes and sheltered housing at the Surrey-based registered social landlord (HT 7 November 2003, page 12). Just a month before that, it had been put under Housing Corporation supervision, and a corporation assessment had also highlighted weaknesses in Shaftesbury's subsidiaries.
Clayton, 57, joined Shaftesbury from charity World Vision in May last year after the retirement of Jeffrey Cackett. World Vision, like Shaftesbury, is a Christian organisation.
Sources said Clayton had been under a lot of pressure after the association went into supervision but there was no suggestion that he had not been up to the job.
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Clayton's departure would not affect the association's A-minus rating. Its credit rating had been put under review when it went into supervision but was not downgraded.
Analyst Dimitri Popov said: "We are comfortable with the management team at Shaftesbury and the rest of the team is still the same. The action plan has been approved and is the action plan Clayton started. We are monitoring the situation."
A caretaker chief executive is to be selected within a few weeks.
Shaftesbury has diversified recently into a wide range of sectors including student housing and care homes. It recently signed a £20.8m deal with Lloyds TSB Bank to fund student homes (HT 20 January, page 14).
Source
Housing Today
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