Housing association appoints former Labour minister as chair

Midland Heart has appointed former government minister Lord Ian Austin as its new chair.

The 34,000-home housing association announced this morning that the Labour peer will join its board in September.

Lord Austin, who served as a junior minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government in the final months of the Gordon Brown government, will replace the outgoing chair John Edwards.

The housing association said Lord Austin, former MP for west midlands seat Dudley North, will be “returning to his roots” as he previously worked for Focus Housing, one of the organisations that merged to create Midland Heart in 2006.

Lord Austin served as parliamentary under secretary of state, alongside housing minister John Healey, from June 2009 until May 2010, when Labour lost the general election to David Cameron’s Conservatives. Lord Austin also served in Tony Blair’s government, spending six years working at the Treasury as an adviser to Brown when he was chancellor.

He is currently a Homes England board member.

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The peer will take over as chair as Midland Heart aims to meet its corporate plan objective of building 4,000 homes between 2019 and 2025.

As of 31 March, Midland Heart had built 1,620 of these homes, including 700 last year, according to its financial statements.

Glenn Harris, chief executive of Midland Heart, said: “Through his time as minister, his role with Homes England and having worked for one of our legacy organisations Ian has seen all sides of the housing sector and understands the importance of making every single home a decent, safe, and secure place to live.”

Lord Austin will attend board meetings in an ‘observatory capacity’ for the next seven months before taking over in September.

He said: “I look forward to learning more about the business over the next and making sure that we continue to provide great quality homes and services to our customers.”