Platform Housing Group announces two new appointments to its Senior Leadership team
A Midlands-based social landlord has appointed two new members to its senior leadership team.
Platform Housing Group has welcomed Gary Bell as Transformation Director and Nathan Barson as Procurement Director.
Gary Bell 
Nathan Barson
These latest appointments will further strengthen the Group’s management structure by adding to its existing diverse and robust experience.
Gary has spent his entire career working in the public sector, starting off in local government; he then progressed to working for three large IT companies in their consulting divisions as well as working for a national regulator. He has joined Platform Housing Group from A2Dominion Housing Group in London.
This new role for the Group will focus on the transformation of services to achieve enhanced outcomes for customers and stakeholders.
Gary said : “I’m delighted to join Platform Housing Group; the combination of my transformation skills with my housing experience, will, I hope, bring about positive and continuous change.”
Elizabeth Froude, Chief Executive at Platform Housing Group said : “Gary’s transformation skills will help us bring greater alignment as we continue on our business change journey. This will maximise the impact and efficiency of our change programme, enabling us to deliver on our strategy of improving services for our customers, ensuring alignment of all areas of the business and delivering on our objective of building a truly modern housing association.”
Nathan – who lives in Leicestershire – joined the Group from the Cabinet office where he supported the national programme on PPE to help the fight against Covid-19; previous to this, Nathan worked for some years for one of the UK’s leading construction and infrastructure companies, Kier Group.
Nathan said : “I’m looking forward to continuing to raise the profile of procurement within the Group, with the aim to build a world class procurement function. Procurement, when done well, can be a real catalyst for change. We will move beyond simple cost reduction to adding real strategic value to the organisation. I’m delighted to be appointed to the newly created role of Procurement Director; the opportunity to apply my knowledge and experience into an organisation with such a fundamental social needs at its core is truly appealing.”
Rosemary Farrar, Chief Finance Officer at Platform Housing Group, said: “Continuous development of our business critical areas is crucial to ensure we meet the needs of our customers, partners and stakeholders. Nathan’s appointment will help us to move successfully into the future and we would like to welcome him to the Group.”
Platform Housing Group – which owns 46,000 homes in total – completed 1448 homes in 2019/20 (1,598 in 2018/19) at an investment of £258m (£228m in 2018/19). The Group also built more social rented homes – at a figure of 981 – during the past 2 years in England than any other provider, 523 in 2019/20, almost 33% of the total homes built.
Platform Housing Group’s operating area is from Herefordshire in the West to the Lincolnshire coast in the East, and from the Derbyshire Dales in the North to the Cotswolds in the South.
