Ready, steady, go: First quarter report from Altair Ltd

Ready, steady, go: First quarter report from Altair Ltd

Altair Ltd is the new leading edge consultancy lead by Steve Douglas, Susan Kane, Fiona Underwood and Chris Wood.

The first three months of Altair have flown by, now employing 10 members of staff in addition to a number of key associates, we’ve hit the ground running, advising organisations on bidding to the HCA for affordable rent, housing management and housing asset reviews; strategic positioning – including mergers and acquisitions; new business opportunities; and financial business plan reviews amongst other things.

We’ve been working with housing associations, local authorities, ALMOs and the private sector.

So, what have we been up to? Below are just some of the projects we’ve been involved with:

Current project and clients:

• Development of bid advice to the Homes and Communities Agency for small, medium and large housing associations, including The Guinness Housing Partnership’s successful £53.8 million bid.
• Organisational redesign and finance review
• Audit style reviews of areas of significant housing risk, financial reporting and business planning
• Interim management and recruitment– for housing associations; eg. Interim Development Director at a leading developing housing organisation and support to local authorities eg Redbridge, Ealing, Greenwich
• Permanent Recruitment – currently recruiting for Director of Business Development for Housemark and Assistant Director of Sales- Network
• Housing Group, following successful appointments for Swan Housing Group and Midland Heart Housing Group.
• Asset Review to generate efficiencies from development for a home county district authority, also looking at the implications of Housing Revenue Account reform
• Sector research; Research and report on housing market with policy support and recommendations for a major Scottish housing association; research and policy recommendations for the Greater London Authority into landlord accreditation schemes; competitor analysis for several large housing association groups; sector wide research into financial capacity of organisations, and the impact of benefit reform and affordable rent models
• Working with Boards; Board facilitation, finance training for a number of senior management teams and boards, strategic financial reporting and policy training for several boards across the country
• Strategic Review of sheltered housing services for London Borough of Ealing

We’ve also given our views on the big issues facing the affordable housing and regeneration sector and recently chaired The Building and Social Housing Foundation annual 2 day consultation on increasing housing supply.

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