Brief profile

A qualified and practised property professional with wide ranging experience of property maintenance and asset management in public sector housing. I am seeking a position which will make best use of my skills but which will present new challenges and opportunities to enhance my experience to date.

Since October 2007, I have been self-employed through my own company, Amenra (Property Services) Limited working on behalf of the Methodist Ministers' Housing Society and Catalyst Communities Housing Association.

Professional Experience

Feb 2007 to Present Catalyst Communities HA

Maintenance Manager

■ My current post sees me responsible for the effective planning, procurement and delivery of a cost effect and customer focused responsive, cyclical and planned maintenance service for properties managed by the Reading regional office.

■ With a responsive maintenance budget £x million and a property portfolio comprising some 1100 general needs and shared ownership dwellings, I am required to ensure that properties are maintained to a high standard and that all void properties are re-let in a timely manner and to a pre-defined lettable standard.

■ Planned and cyclical work is centrally procured however, as Maintenance Manager, I have a high level of involvement in the procurement process including setting the local programmes priorities from base information produced by the stock survey as well as devolved authority once the schemes are on-site.

■ With my team, I also provide advice and assistance in relation to new property developments for the Reading area. This ranges from design and specification issues to pre-handover snagging and defects management as well as regular contributions as the project proceeds on-site. This area of work has introduced me to innovations such as photo-voltaic panels, solar panels and water re-cycling systems, all of which present challenged for future asset management.

■ My main areas of focus at the moment are the procurement of grounds maintenance and cleaning contract, undertaking fire safety risk assessments of communal areas (for which I am a Responsible Person) and the procurement of a contract for the service and repair of fire safety systems.

■ I am also involved in the procurement of long term framework contracts across a variety of service areas and the implementation of a new responsive maintenance partnering contract. Both these projects have been heavily influenced by the Egan agenda and incorporate a number of performance and sustainability initivtives (albeit, at an early stage).

■ Other areas of involvement include undertaking condition surveys, gas safety management and representing the Reading Region on the group wide working groups (asset management, asbestos and fire safety as examples).

■ My primary achievements since joining Catalyst in February 2007 include forming a constructive and regular dialog with the head office based asset management team, implementing maintenance contracts for a range of communal services, commencement of the regions fire safety risk assessments ahead of programme and starting to re-build relationships between our current (and prospective partnering) maintenance contractor and the Reading office team.

■ Further short to medium term objectives include successful implementation of framework agreements for a range of service areas and implementing a budget management strategy to ensure that regional projects are delivered within budget.

2004 - February 2007 Methodist Ministers Housing Society

Property Manager

■ Responsible directly to the Chief Executive, my remit was the whole life maintenance and management of the 960 properties owned by the Society across the UK.

■ With a total budget of just over £2m per annum and a team of two administrators, I was expected to deliver a cost effective repair service as well as a structured and planned capital improvement programme within time and cost constraints.

■ As a charity with limited income, accuracy in budget preparation and strict budget management were key aspects of the position. I implemented a monthly procedure for budget reconciliation and introduced a commitment accounting system to the Society. Both these innovations produced results with projects meeting their expected budget and a snapshot being available at any time of costs (both actual and anticipated) against budget.

■ The procurement of refurbishment work was regularised with the introduction of a brief for consultants setting out the Society requirement in detail as well as the production (all in-house) of an approved material and workmanship specification. Over time, and with the use of a smaller panel of consultants, these system improvements led to reduced costs and end to end times for refurbishment projects.

■ As the Society bought and sold properties (on average 80 in total per annum) as and when Methodist Ministers retired or passed away, I was required review each prospective purchase for suitability and condition (and hence medium term improvement cost) as well as undertaking option appraisals on vacant properties. Appraisals were based on age, condition, value, location, short-term lettability and resulted in recommendations for disposal, refurbishment or short term private let to the Chief Executive.

■ Risk management was a primary area of concern for the Society and I was responsible for preparation and management of risk assessments for the work undertaken by my section. This necessarily led to crossover with other sections within the organisation and hence close liaison with the relevant service managers.

■ The Society was in the process of procuring a stock survey as I left their employment however, I had undertaken high level negotiations with external service providers as well as assisting in the design of the stock survey itself.

■ Other requirements included preparing and presenting reports to the Board and service Committees, policy preparation and management, visiting tenants in their homes to discuss issues and requirements, IT implementations including repairs ordering and document management, leasehold management (as a leaseholder) and setting and measuring targets and objective for team members.

■ My key achievements with the Society were implementation of a term maintenance contract which covered almost 30% of the operational area, achieving a balanced budget at the end of each financial year, streamlining the procurement process (and hence costs) for refurbishment projects, implementing a structured and costed medium term capital investment programme, designing and introducing a new repair ordering system which allowed commitment (as well as actual) expenditure to be accurately monitored and the fostering of constructive relationships with consultants and contractors countrywide.

2003 - 2004 Harrow Borough Council

Programme Manager

■ Day to day management of six team members comprising three development officers, two resident liaison officers and two part time administrative officers.

■ The position required me to operate in two distinctive areas. The delivery of the existing capital investment programme (of around £5 million per annum) and working with senior managers on the ALMO bid and future programmes (valued at around £35 million over the first five years of the ALMO).

■ Delivery of the pre-existing programme included liaison with external suppliers / providers, tenants (including residents groups and forum), budget management, briefing consultants and liaison with other bodies not directly related to the work (responsive maintenance team and social services as examples).

■ During this time, I introduced a new brief for consultants which was very specific to the needs of the organisation at that time and set detailed targets for the (in-house) consultants to achieve. I did assist with the fostering of strong relations with the in-house consultancy team which helped with both the delivery of projects and the resolution of issues.

■ The position also require me to design and procure smaller scale projects for (for example) asbestos surveys and service and repair of communal facilities (lifts and water quality monitoring as examples) in sheltered schemes as well as individual properties.

■ The ALMO work revolved around the stock survey which underpinned the bid and scheduling and programming the work identified from the survey to fit the budget profile. This process was complicated by the need to separate decent homes work from work not related to decent homes (whilst maintaining the overall programme) and the fluid nature of the budget profile.

■ The programmes were presented to senior management as well as residents groups so the asset management strategy adopted needed to be justifiable with accurate costs and valid reasons for programming decisions.

1999 - 2003 Nucleus Services Limited

Contract Surveyor / Senior Contract Surveyor (from August 2001)

■ Primary role was the procurement and delivery of the capital and planned investment programme to the properties owned by Beacon Housing Association, the housing provider within the Group.

■ With an annual budget of around £9 million per annum and individual contracts typically valuing no more than £600k per annum, projects included kitchen and bathroom replacement, property modernisation, roofing replacement, secure access systems and estate regeneration.

■ This work encompassed a range of property types and tenures including general needs housing, special needs projects and sheltered schemes, site based accommodation for doctors and nurses, private rented accomodation and leaseholders.

■ Surveyors generally acted as contract administrator with very little external assistance other then on complex projects. Duties involved design and procurement of schemes, day to day project and financial management, leaseholder liaison and updating of the stock survey with completed work details.

■ In August 2001, I was internally promoted to Senior Contract Surveyor with responsibility for the team of surveyors, overall responsibility for preparation of monthly budget expenditure and forecast for the team, first point of contact for other group members requiring technical assistance or project management services and the preparation of annual budget bids.

1996 - 1999 Winchester Housing Group

Maintenance / Estates Officer

■ Pre and post inspection of responsive repairs

■ Design, procurement and management of refurbishment and cyclical works projects

■ Brief, procure and manage the stock condition survey.

■ Work with Development function during design, procurement and handover of new developments

■ Provision of budget data to Housing Manager.

1989 - 1996 Durham City Council

Technical Assistant and Estimator

■ (As Technical Assistant) - Basic estimating, material scheduling, operative management, negotiation of valuations and final accounts, operating bonus incentive scheme.

■ (As Estimator) - Preparation of tenders, contract management, valuations and final accounts.

Education

1991 - 1992 University of Northumbria

■ Chartered Institute of Building Member 1 and 2 examinations

1986 - 1989 Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic

■ B/TEC HNC in Building Studies

1983 - 1986 New College Durham

■ B/TEC OND in Building Studies

1978 - 1993 Dene House Comprehensive School

■ CSE's including Maths (grade 2), English (grade 2) and Arithmetic (grade 1)

vocational training

See list sent to CIOB for membership but including CDM 2007, Fire Reform Order and whatever else.

Professional memberships

Incorporate Member of the CIOB, aiming to achieve chartered status by mid-2008.

Technician Member of the Institute of Maintenance and Building Management.

Other Skills

■ I am very proficient in the use of Microsoft Office products and am particularly advanced with Excel and Acess.

■ In 2004, I became an accredited energy surveyor using the Elmhurst suite of software.

■ In 2007, I completed training provided by Buckinghamshire Fire Brigade to become a 'Responsible Person' in respect of the Regualtory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.