Jill Murray (until her recent marriage Jill Haley) is reminiscing about the early 1980s and working as a junior clerk in the housing department at Sunderland City Council.

“I had a purple hairstyle, which was long at the back, with a long fringe and a skinhead at the top, it was quite outlandish, but you have to remember it was the New Romantic era,” she laughs in her strong North-east accent.

Peter Walls, her boss at the time, who went on to become the well-known chief executive of stock transfer association Gentoo, recalls the teenage Jill as being dressed like a “cross between Siouxsie Sioux and Pocohontas”.

Little was the 16-year-old Murray to know that the job would kickstart a four-decade love affair with the housing sector, which culminated this month in Murray becoming the president of the Chartered Institute of Housing.