Moray Housing Partnership has refreshed its governance and oversight with the appointment of a new chair and two new committee members.

Les Allan, a vastly experience housing professional, has been appointed as chair to lead the committee of management. Mr Allan, from Portsoy, was previously an area manager with Aberdeenshire Council and head of housing for North Aberdeenshire where he managed a stock of 13,000 council houses.

In a career spanning many years, he led an options appraisal allowing tenants the choice of having the council or a housing association as a landlord, helped develop a 30 year business plan and led community and planning engagement across Marr encouraging partnership working between communities and agencies.

He said: “It’s a great privilege to take up this important appointment and I look forward in conjunction with a dedicated and talented staff team to helping the local community tackle its housing needs.”

His appointment has been welcomed by chief executive Colin Hawkins, who said: “The new look committee will be well lead by Les and I look forward to working closely with him. We have various development plans for the area over the next 12 months and the experience Les brings to the organisation will be very welcome.”

Mr Allan is joined on the committee of management by two other new members. Moray Councillor Patsy Gowans and Stephen Christie, chair of the Moray Tenants Forum, also take up roles on the committee. Both are based in Elgin and bring the total number on the committee to nine.