The governor

She even has a historical claim to the title: Shirley Conran, the 1970s feminist whose bok Superwoman told a generation of women that they could have it all, is her godmother.

But Atkins won't accept the title. "I'll give you an example of how un-Superwoman I am," she says. "I had a meeting at the strategic health authority [Portsmouth Primary Care Trust, of which Atkins is chair] and part of it was my formal appraisal – but on the way there, I ran out of petrol and I was three-quarters of an hour late."

Atkins also rejects the superhero title at Places for People, even though she is working two days a week at the health trust and one at her consultancy as well as the two days she spends at the RSL – she says she relies on her board to fill gaps in her knowledge and experience. Indeed, relatively young and with little development experience, she was regarded by many in the sector as a surprise choice to chair an RSL that is, with 52,500 homes, one of the UK's largest developing associations and which has suffered very high-profile governance issues that Atkins must now sort out.

Bristling with energy when we meet in the association's offices late one afternoon, despite having had back-to-back meetings all day, she denies that her background will be a hindrance. "We ensured the board was complemented – there are two members who have the background. The important thing is that I understand how to run a board."

Places for People hit the headlines last September with a boardroom row when two independent members were voted off and another pair resigned in protest (HT 26 September 2003, page 7). The Housing Corporation put the RSL under supervision last October and Atkins was brought in this May. Only three of the nine non-executive board members have been there more than nine months, and making the team gel is Atkins' first task.

She won't comment on the boardroom row, but says "a raft of governance issues" need to be addressed across public and voluntary organisations. "A lot of organisations in this sector are moving into new areas, so you're always developing new ground. You're creating the manual you have to assess yourself against."

Atkins insists Places for People's financial probity and customer service was never in question but admits it was weak at resolving board-level conflict. "You need to be strong at that because, as you grow, you become more complex and there's more room for questions."

Some of those questions should be answered by an independent governance review, completed in April and described by David McWilliams, a senior consultant at the Institute of Directors who carried out the project, as "the largest review of corporate governance issues I've ever seen a company undertake". Places for People is awaiting the corporation's response to the inspection before publicising its findings.

Atkins hopes this review, plus an action plan, will convince the corporation to relinquish its grip by September. She says phase one of the action plan, which included the appointment of a chair and "issues around the style and structure of reports", is complete. But she's cagey about the plan's contents, saying only that "it's not rocket science, it's standard governance issues". Stage two is going to look at long-term operating structures.

A safe pair of hands
Atkins began looking for non-executive roles in 2001 and her first was the Portsmouth health authority, where she is responsible for sums similar to those ones at Places for People. Headhunters approached her early this year for the RSL job, but it wasn't the first time she'd caught the housing sector's eye.

"I'd been approached by a couple of housing associations that didn't interest me because they were still very much geared towards a roof and I was looking for a non-executive position that had a focus on regeneration. The fact that this job wasn't just about housing, but it was at one of the largest social housing providers in the independent sector – that lit my fire."

The feeling is mutual. "She's a competent, experienced chair," says Julia Middleton, the corporation-appointed interim chair who hired Atkins. "She is extremely enthusiastic and has an energy that fits the culture of the organisation. We needed an inspiring but safe pair of hands, which Zenna was."

Atkins' safe hands must now pull Places for People out of an introspective phase, says David Walker, one of the board members who resigned in last year's row. "The game plan had been development, now it's not entirely clear what it is. It's been a year of fantastic opportunity for social housing to capture the imagination of those in government, in the City, and Places for People has suddenly become very inward-directed, trying to cope [with its governance issues]," he says.

But Atkins disagrees. "A prime focus for Places for People is developing communities where people want to live and part of that is developing property for sale. But the reality is that there are certain local authorities who would find it more difficult to do transfers when you're in supervision, so can we do development at the same speed? No.

"Are there certain activities that can't go ahead because we're in supervision? Yes. Does that mean we've lost our focus? No. Is it damaging us long-term? No. We need to watch it and manage it, but it doesn't affect our focus."

Changing gear
Places for People plans to build 800 homes in the next nine months: 500 for social rent and 300 for private sale or rent through subsidiaries Emblem Homes and Blueroom Properties. It is these parts of the business that may save Places for People from a frustrating two years in the old-style grant slow lane while 71 other associations zoom past on the superhighway reserved for the corporation's development partners: it got just £11.92m in grant for 2004-6.

Atkins, though, sees a positive side to the small allocation. "It would be naive to say that not being a partner is a great thing, but sometimes these things can be very useful because it means you use alternative routes, which will be more commercial. Ultimately, this is where the sustainable development is.

"It's very exciting. It'll open up more opportunities and mean we develop new ways of working and thinking. We have to get more creative and I think we already are." How? "I may be new but I'm not falling for that one," she says, snorting with laughter.

Atkins is paid £20,000 a year for her work at Places for People and is very much in favour of payment for board members, though she doesn't think it aids diversity.

"For that, you have to look at a far bigger salary," she says. "But I think it's much easier to do proper appraisals and get rid of people if you pay them – it doesn't matter how much. If you pay between £5000 and £12,000 for a day-and-a-half a month, you can demand a certain degree of performance for that."

So, should board members step down after nine years, as the National Housing Federation advises in its new code of governance (right)? Atkins feels outside guidelines are a little arbitrary. "When you're in the business of producing policy and guidance, you have to pick a number," she says. "When you're running a successful organisation, you have to do what's right for that organisation at the time. You need a balance of corporate memory and external views, otherwise you can end up running around like a hamster in a wheel, repeating the same things."

As for her free time, Atkins says: "I'm very privileged because I love everything I do, I have a fantastic life" and claims this means she has difficulty discriminating between work and play.

The flexibility of her non-executive roles helps her find time to spend with her children, nine-year-old Alasha and his five-year-old sister Zephra. But she plans to move back into executive roles again when they get older and by her late 50s, she'd like to go into international peacekeeping, particularly in religious disputes (she's not religious herself – "that's why I'd be ideally suited to do it").

In the mean time, she doesn't think she'll have to do much peacekeeping at Places for People. "If I was in the Housing Corporation, I'd want to give it a few weeks to make sure but I think all the tasks are done. Governance isn't a rule book, it's a set of policies that can be adapted, it's a mindset. And it's obvious to me coming in from outside that this organisation has the right mindset."