Member Article

Keith Simpson, Co-Founder of Just Housing Group Announces Retirement

One of the UK’s leading social housing support consultancies – Just Housing Group (JHG) – will be wishing a fond farewell to its very well respected Co-Founder and Business Development Director, Keith Simpson, as he steps into retirement.

At the age of 73, Keith is well-known in the housing sector having spent 45 years specialising in the area of repairs and maintenance. Keith initially began working in this area as a Contract Manager of Home Improvements for Sheffield City Council, spending almost 14 years in this position before working in Peterborough and finally as Technical Services Director in LB Islington. He then went on to set up his own repair and maintenance consultancy – KS Management Consultancy – which he successfully ran for nine years.

In 2004 Keith co-founded east London based JHG alongside Kevin McCarthy to develop a multi-discipline organisation, committed to bringing innovative and best practice to help social housing providers to reduce their costs and increase operational efficiencies.

And achieving just that, JHG now consists of six business streams from consultancy and housing support right through to property services and recruitment. The company has an impressive portfolio of over 100 clients, including the likes of major Housing Associations such as Midland Heart, Futures Housing Group and SHAL.

As a larger than life character, Kevin, JHG’s Executive Chair and Co-Founder has always admired Keith’s nature to speak his mind and challenge the status quo. Kevin believes there is no doubt that without Keith’s candour and bluntness the sector will be a duller place.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with Keith to build the foundations and continued successes at JHG.” Kevin said, “It has sometimes been tempestuous but always fun. He has made a huge contribution to social housing and once met is rarely forgotten.”

Speaking about his retirement, Keith said: “I’ve always had a passion for shaping and improving the operations for social housing providers and doing so with Just Housing Group has been a very exciting chapter of my life. It has been great to be part of the company’s success and I am extremely confident that JHG will continue to grow from strength to strength and make a significant contribution in shaping the future of social housing.”

As Founder and Chair of the Direct Works Forum – a representative body for Housing Associations, Local Authorities and RSLs employing their own trades staff to undertake repairs and maintenance – Keith will continue to take a keen interest in the forum and continue with his passion for improving direct labour services and finding young people routes into work.

Although stepping down from his role as Business Development Director, with his wealth of knowledge and sector expertise, Keith will continue to work as a specialist advisor to JHG on an ad-hoc basis.

Kevin added: “Everyone at JHG would like to wish Keith the very best in his retirement. We will certainly miss Keith’s unique style and business approach. As a company we have been planning for Keith’s exit for a while and we are looking forward to building on the success of his legacy.”

Just Housing provides services and support in the supply, management and maintenance of social housing. The organisation successfully leads in transforming and creating Direct Labour Organisations (DLO) and with offices in London the company employs 25 staff.

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