New board members, a new chair and a new vice chair were introduced to the membership at CIH Scotland’s Annual General Meeting yesterday.

Amanda Britain will take over from Keith Anderson as chair with Esther Wilson appointed as vice chair.

Amanda is well known to the sector as she currently leads the national programme to improve the connections between the housing sector and partners in health and social care, and has worked in the sector for many years, as a founding director of Craigforth Consultancy.

Esther is currently ‎service manager for economic development and strategic investment at East Lothian Council.

The new board members are Helen Forsyth, chief executive of Berwickshire Housing Association; Jim Hayton, former ALACHO policy manager; Richard Armitage, chief executive of Pentland Housing Association and Mike Campbell, managing director of Belvoir Lettings.

Gary Dalziel, Keith Anderson and Gordon Campbell were also re-appointed to the board.

Outgoing chair Keith Anderson said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed the past two years as chair of CIH Scotland. It has been a challenging time of change and I am very grateful to the staff team for their skill and commitment delivering valued services to members. I am very pleased to be handing over to Amanda who I am confident will bring her varied experience and insight of housing and of partnership working to great effect in this role.”

Amanda Britain added: “I am delighted to have been elected to chair the Scotland Board of the CIH. A good home is the foundation on which people build their lives. The housing workforce already makes a huge contribution to improving people’s living conditions, and increasing our skills and raising our standards is key to delivering more and better. With my board member colleagues and our strong staff team, I am really looking forward to helping the CIH and the sector make a difference.”

The board also thanked Keith Anderson for his time as chair and said farewell to Elaine Zwerlein who stood down from the board and her role as vice chair.