About us
We are the Shared Ownership Council, established to improve and aid consistency in the experiences and associated outcomes of shared ownership, for consumers - both present and future - and for industry stakeholders.
What we’ve done so far
Aim to broaden access to homeownership
This work flows out of a review of access to homeownership which was undertaken in 2021 by Lloyds Banking Group as a market initiative.
One conclusion of that work was that partial ownership schemes will be increasingly important to bridge people from renting to owning.
Convene a cross-industry steering group
A cross-industry expert steering group was convened and chaired by Peter Williams, departmental fellow at the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge. The group included leaders from Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, Heylo, Leeds Building Society, the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, Sesame Bankhall Group, Network Homes, the Chartered Institute of Housing, and Lloyds Banking Group
Research with a focus on surfacing consumer insight
The steering group carried out research into the opportunities and barriers to growing shared ownership.
Within this, we had a specific aim to surface consumer insight from academic literature and other sources, given the absence of consumers from the table at this stage.
Build on achievements to date
We came to a set of proposals which aim to build on the achievements to date and drive a consistently good consumer experience of shared ownership, supporting the growth of the tenure.
Our people
We are pleased to have a Board in place who are well-respected and known in the sector, who offer a range of insights from many years in the housing space.
Ann Santry CBE
Chair
Ann has worked in the social housing sector for over 35 years and was CEO of Sovereign Housing until June 2018. She is Chair of the Barnwood Trust and holds NED positions at the housebuilder, Hill Group, and Simply Affordable Homes.
Paula Higgins
Paula is founder of the HomeOwners Alliance, established after 15 years’ experience reforming housing policy within government. She is a respected property commentator and advocate for homeowners.
Brendan Sarsfield
Brendan is the founding Chair of Sustainability for Housing. He has over 20 years’ experience in housing sector, including as Peabody’s CEO (2017-2021) and as current Board member of Grosvenor Hart Homes.
Janet Pope
Janet most recently served as Chief of Staff and Chief Sustainability Officer at Lloyds Banking Group, a Group Executive Committee role. Here she led on a variety of purpose related issues including access to affordable, quality and sustainable homes, inclusion and sustainability. Janet has a number of non executive roles including Chair at Charities Aid Foundation Bank.
Peter Williams
Independent advisor
Peter has an extensive career, spanning academia, housing and financial service, trade bodies, government research, and public service. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, having previously served as the Deputy Director General of Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Core delivery team
The Board will be supported in their role by the core delivery team, made up of colleagues from Social Finance, a not-for-profit enterprise that designs, funds and scales better solutions to complex social issues. This is achieved by working with government bodies, commissioners, and service providers such as charities, funders, and philanthropic organisations.
The role of the core delivery team will be to provide the capacity and capability to set up and run the Council. This part-time team comprises a Director, Manager, and Associate, with further support and input from a wide network, including the Council’s Senior Advisory Group, the HBSG group, and a working group of industry stakeholders.
For further information on Social Finance, please visit the website.
If you have any questions, then please reach out to ankita.saxena@socialfinance.org.uk.