Homes England appoints first ever COO as it revamps strategy

Homes England has hired Kirsty Shaw as its first ever chief operating officer (COO).

Shaw, currently CEO at the Care Quality Commission, will be tasked with ensuring that the quango is “appropriately organised and structured”, a spokesperson said.

Shaw will join the agency, which administers the government’s £11.5bn affordable homes programme and £1.8bn brownfield fund, in September.

Peter Denton, chief executive of Homes England, said: “Kirsty joins us at an exciting time for Homes England.

“The new COO role is crucial for us as we think about the next phase of the agency, and Kirsty’s experience of leading large-scale operations and complex transformation programmes across central government will help us to continue to strengthen our ability to deliver at pace.”

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She currently leads the customer and corporate functions of CQC, as well as having responsibility for a complex portfolio of policy, digital and organisational change.

Homes England is currently working on a new strategy which it previously said would probably be out this spring.

It is expected to focus more on regeneration, design and encouraging new building in areas of the country outside the southeast, in line with the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda.