Board member pay - the story so far

24/11/04
Media Contact: Sandra White 020 7393 2094
Ref: 63/04

Twenty five housing associations have introduced payment for their board members - eleven of these are within the "top 100" associations.

This is just one of the findings released today by the Housing Corporation in its report 'Board payment - the first year' which looks at how the new arrangements are working.

It has been over a year since the decision was taken to allow housing associations to pay their board members following extensive consultation within the sector.

The report concludes that:

• there has not been a great rush to introduce payment. Most associations seem content to wait for the time being.
• the most common reason cited for introducing payment was to attract and retain high quality board members. In some cases this was associated with increased competition with other organisations.
• on the whole associations have put forward convincing business cases, linking payment to improved performance and to achieve continuous improvement and excellence in governance.
• overwhelmingly it is associations within group structures that have introduced payment and eleven of these are within the top 100 associations in terms of stock owned and managed.
• four medium sized stand-alone housing associations, with stock of between 2,000 and 5,000, have introduced payment.

"This report is a snapshot of how it is being implemented so far but it is too early to be able to assess the effects of payment and we will continue to review the policy."

One housing association who have taken advantage of the opportunity to pay its board members is Silbury Group.

Niall Murphy, Corporate Services Director, Silbury Group said: "We considered board member remuneration as part of a wide ranging review of Governance. The working group we set up concentrated on issues arising from the Housing Corporation good practice note on board member pay.

"The working group sought the views of a wide range of our key stakeholders including shareholders and tenants and Kennet District Council and considered a number of factors as part of the business case for payment. These included increasingly complex work, requirement to introduce limited appointments and the difficulty in recruiting new board members of sufficient quality."

The proposals were discussed by the Silbury Group and although there were some reservations about payment only two members voted against the proposal. Silbury therefore decided to introduce payment with effect from 1 October 2004.

Ends

Notes to editors:

A copy of the report can be obtained from the Housing Corporation website at www.housingcorp.gov.uk

The 'top 100' list of housing associations is based on levels of housing stock owned and managed.

The Silbury Group comprises Sarsen Housing Association, Ridgeway Community Housing Association and Silbury First Limited

Group turnover is £20 million per annum, and assets are valued at around £200m

Sarsen Housing p