As a not for profit organisation, Seaside Homes has no shareholders and is controlled by a Board of 9 Trustees; 3 members are recruited from the local business community, 3 are council tenants and 3 are elected members of Brighton & Hove City Council.
Chris is a retired Chartered Surveyor with more than forty five years` experience in residential and commercial property. He has a high reputation in the Social Housing sector where he worked closely with Local Authorities, Housing Associations and the main Banks and is familiar with lending procedures, legal technicalities, loan documentation and risk/performance monitoring required for multi-million pound loans for investment in social housing for rent.
Chris’s experience over the past 20 years as both a Chairman and Board Member of housing associations has given him an in-depth understanding of the issues affecting both vulnerable and financially excluded people in society. He has also served on various committees of these organisations dealing with risk, finance, regulatory compliance, housing development and property maintenance.
Chris’s current role as an Non – Executive Director of Boom Credit Union in Surrey, Kingston and West Sussex involves overseeing Compliance issues and as Money Laundering Reporting Officer. These are key roles from the point of view of the Regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Chris is a resident of Whitehawk. She was educated at Hove Grammar school for girls and worked as a chef for many years. She is now chair of the Due East Neighbourhood council, a Trustee of the East Brighton Trust and sits on the Brighton & Hove Council East Area Panel. In her spare time Chris runs a lunch club and keeps herself busy sitting on various committees. She enjoys life and likes to help others to improve their life-style.
Barry became a tenant of Brighton & Hove City Council in 2002. Soon after taking up residency he joined the Residents’ Association and in due course was elected as Chairman, a post he continues to hold.
Barry spent his working life in advertising as a copywriter and for many years was head of a multi-national group of companies. In the 1990’s he had regular columns in various publications, including time as ‘Hornblower’ of the Evening Standard. In 1996 he was appointed as Editorial Director of The Old Museum Press and continues to have an interest in publishing as an Editorial Consultant and Ghostwriter.
Barry sits on the Brighton & Hove City Council Tenant Editorial Board and has participated in several Focus / Task and Finish Groups – including being involved in drafting the current tenancy agreement. He is also Chairman of the Tenancy & Neighbourhoods SIG, Chairman of the Central Area Residents Only Meeting and a representative on the Central Area Housing Management Panel.
Outside of his Brighton & Hove City Council activities, Barry is a trustee and director of Brighton & Hove Social Welfare and Educational Trust Limited (Resource Centre), Press Officer for Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition and Membership Secretary of Brighton and Hove Heritage Commission.
Mary is a successful local business woman and former leader of Brighton & Hove City Council. She was first elected to Brighton Council in 1992 and subsequently Brighton & Hove City Council following local government re-organisation in 1997. Mary has many years of housing experience having served on the Housing Committee at various times as member, Chair and Opposition Spokesperson. She was elected as leader of the council in 2008 and served in this capacity until 2011.
Mary is very active in her local community, chairing the Brighton & Hove branch of the Royal British Legion and the Rottingdean/Saltdean Local Action Team, as well as serving as a trustee for the Paley Trust and the Valley Social Centre.
Chris was a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (South East Board) for many years and is still its lead on International housing matters. He has arranged many housing study visits, starting off with a visit to France some 24 years ago and has included study visits to the USA, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong along with numerous European cities. He also assisted in organising the CIH’s Annual Regional Conference held in Brighton.
All bar three years of his working life has been centred in public/ private housing. Chris worked for several Local Authorities and housing partnership developers in the South East before joining Calford Seaden, a leading property services consultancy, in 2004 where he led on New Business and New Initiatives. Chris announced his retirement from April 2013 and then spent a year working for the RUND Partnership as their Business Development Consultant.
Chris has now retired but still retains his strong interest and commitment to the social housing sector. He will also be keen to continue to support both Sussex CCC and Brighton and Hove Albion. Chris lives nearby in Mid Sussex.
Alex was elected as Green Member of the European Parliament for the South East of England in May 2019. The same month, she also became the youngest ever mayor of Brighton & Hove taking up the ceremonial chains at 33 years old.
Alex is currently the second longest serving Green member for Brighton & Hove City Council, having first been elected at a by-election in July 2009 and then re-elected at the following three local elections. She is currently the Deputy Chair of the Housing Committee with a focus on rough sleeping. She is married to fellow Green Councillor Tom Druitt and they have a son, Rafi, born in 2017.
After a long career in the hospitality industry David came to Brighton in 2003 to take up the position as Chef/ Manager at a local hotel. Within a week of moving in to his new property David was invited to attend a Residents’ Association meeting and was duly appointed as Treasurer.
David retired in 2016 and was then able to take on a bigger role in local Resident Involvement. He first joined the Brighton & Hove City Council Resident Inspectors, and last year was voted as Chair of the Leaseholder Action Group. Since that time David has also joined the Central Area Housing Management Panel and attends the Central Area Residents Only Meetings.
Details coming soon
Phil is a fully qualified Chartered Certified Accountant, having qualified in 1996 and becoming a Fellow in 2001. In his professional career Phil has worked in both practice and industry. He qualified whilst working for Grant Thornton and his industry roles have included that of Finance Director in a multi-million pound subsidiary of a FTSE 250 listed group. He also has experience of working in the charity sector and has been running his own successful business since 2015.
Being an accountant Phil obviously loves numbers but more than that he really enjoys helping individuals and businesses fulfill their commercial potential. He has lived in Peacehaven for over fifteen years and outside of work he enjoys spending time with his family, playing golf and squash and following his football team.