Appointment comes after later living specialist was placed under investigation by regulator
Anchor has appointed a new director of property and assets.
Julie Wittich joins the later living specialist from Accent, where she is currently chief operating officer.
Prior to that she has worked for Watford Community Housing and BPHA.
Wittich will take up her new role in June, replacing interim executive director Jeremy Kape.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Anchor at such an important time,” said Wittich.
“I am looking forward to working with colleagues to ensure homes and assets are managed efficiently and sustainably for residents and helping achieve Anchor’s long-term ambitions.”
Anchor was set up more than six decades ago and claims to be England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care for older people. It serves more than 65,000 residents in nearly 55,000 homes.
>> Also read: Anchor CEO Sarah Jones on why affordable later living housing matters
In a statement announcing Wittich’s appointment, the provider cited her track record of “transformational change in customer-influenced services”.
Earlier this year, the Regulator of Social Housing opened an investigation into whether Anchor has breached the governance and financial viability standard after finding several failures relating to safety.
Anchor was placed on the regulator’s ‘gradings under review’ list, citing governance issues, and awarded it a low ‘C3’ grading for consumer regulation, meaning it has serious failings and must improve.
The provider, which self-referred to the regulator, was found to have a third of its homes without a “current satisfactory” electrical safety inspection report, as well as a backlog of electrical remediation actions, weaknesses across landlord health and safety, and incomplete and unreliable information on damp and mould.
At the time Anchor said it took the failings “very seriously” and that it would overhaul its damp, mould and condensation procedures and launch a new repairs platform.
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