Believe Housing Offers Salary of £207,753 Plus Pension in Search for New Chief Executive...
Believe Housing’s £207,753 Recruitment Package Revealed Following Retirement Announcement...
One of regions largest so called 'housing associations' has been revealed to have offered more than £207,000 a year in salary and a generous car allowance as it recruits a successor to outgoing chief executive Alan Smith.
The vacancy, advertised through executive recruitment firm GatenbySanderson, carries a basic annual salary of £198,986, with a further £8,767 car allowance and membership of a career average local government pension scheme when the advertisement went live with a closing date of late September 2026.
That brought the advertised salary and allowance to £207,753 a year, before employer pension contributions, with the advert failing to specify the cash value of those contributions, meaning the full employment package would be higher.
The recruitment followed Believe Housing’s announcement that Alan Smith would retire at the end of December 2026, he'd only been appointed to the role in April 2023 after the business faced a disastrous Severe Maladministration notice from regulators & continuing concerns over the deteriorating relations with its tenants .
A statement published in July presented his forthcoming departure as the claimed conclusion of a 42-year career in local government and housing, which began at Sedgefield District Council in 1984.
Smith became Believe Housing’s chief executive in April 2023, having previously served as its executive director of Investment, Growth and Performance at the height of the firms Severe Maladministration notice served upon it by regulators. in February 2023. He'd been with the organisation since its earlier County Durham Housing Group days in 2015.
His announced departure come less than four years after taking the top job.
For his successor, the recruitment material described responsibility for an organisation managing more than 18,000 homes, supporting around 22,000 customers and employing approximately 650 staff, with annual turnover exceeding £91 million, although claims over its apparent inability to pay UK corporation tax has overshadowed much of the firms operations.
Applicants were expected to lead organisational change, improve services and oversee a new operating model. The landlord sought experience in housing or a similarly regulated sector, alongside financial judgement and leadership skills.
Applications closed at 9am on Monday 21 September 2026, with the size of the package making executive accountability a central part of the story, with critics claiming a housing association exists to provide homes and services, and the case for remuneration at this level rests on what its leadership delivers.
Believe Housing has faced significant criticism, not only over its financial affairs, but claims its been repeatedly disqualifying applicants from its housing register using AI generated decisions, questionable reasoning & claims of applicants being excluded from being housed after 'whistle-blowing' on former housing officials when allegations of misconduct arose.
The business is said to have repeatedly failed to address those concerns even when damming evidence was presented.
