INTERVIEW


Lindsey Williams has never


looked back since starting her career in Housing, aged 18


‘It’s a great and fascinating career to be involved in because there are so many elements’


based in the East Midlands and so our aim is to invest in the East Midlands with our services and our homes.” And while the overarching premise of Futures’ mission is


clear, delve a little deeper and it becomes evident that the organisation’s activities are multi-dimensional and entwined in the very fabric of society and what makes communities. “We rent out approximately 10,000 homes across the


East Midlands, predominantly general needs accommodation, while about a third of the accommodation we own is occupied by older residents,” explains Lindsey. “We provide a full landlord service and also maintain and


improve our properties – we have major improvement programmes which are managed in-house. “Through our 300-strong workforce we have our own in-


house repairs team, provide support in areas such as money advice, employability services, antisocial behaviour advice, neighbourhood and tenancy management, health and safety and more. “We also own a social enterprise business which undertakes all our landscaping and ground maintenance work, employing local people in the process, and we jointly own a Further Education business (Access Training) with another housing association, delivering training and learning to between 800 and 1,000 people a year in housing, construction, business, health, childcare, management and customer services. “We build and acquire homes – around 300 per year –


ranging from rent, part-rent/part-buy (shared ownership) to outright sale. Futures also owns a portfolio of around 300 market rent properties and provides a broad range of services, such as assisted technology and monitoring services to keep people independent in their homes - young and old; it’s a very comprehensive operation.”


While Lindsey's role is wide-reaching and multifaceted,


seeing her back on the floor looking at adaptations to a property one day and delivering a presentation to a credit agency in London the next, her personal remit, is clear. “I work to a Board of 12, of which I am a member, which


is made up of a range of skills and no member has any ownership in the business,” says Lindsey. “The leadership team and I are responsible to them and


with that goes all the company responsibility of managing turnover of about £50m, investing in new homes to the tune of about £45m a year and all the employability and strategic development of the organisation. “My role is to make sure the leadership team is working


well and that we have a clear strategy with the Board for the future, one which sees us keep an eye on finances, our regulatory requirements, health and safety responsibilities and ensure we’re moving forward as an organisation, meeting the needs of the locality. “It’s fundamentally about making sure we have the right


people in the business doing the right things.” The nature of Lindsey’s role – and that of the wider


Group – inevitably brings with it a personal element. Beneath the facts, figures and statistics often quoted as


part of the Housing conversation locally, regionally and nationally are real people with real lives, a notion that continually drives Lindsey and the organisation forward. “I will always remember something my dad once said to


me that has never left me,” she recalls. “I was driving back from work in Birmingham one


evening and I told him I didn’t know how long I was going to stay in the industry, to which he replied that “there’s almost nothing more important than putting a roof over someone’s head”.


business network October 2019 57


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