Eight years at the helm of housing group

Sally Thomas has announced she is to leave her role heading up the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA).

The CEO has been eight years in post with the news coming as SFHA marks its fiftieth anniversary.

During her tenure, SFHA has achieved a significant increase in members and is now close to 100% sector membership.

Thomas’s career has been dedicated to the cause of affordable rented housing. Following roles in housing associations, government agencies and consultancy, during which she co-authored publications for a number of think-tanks and government departments, she became chief executive of SFHA in 2017.

She led several initiatives during her tenure with SFHA, including co-chairing the Zero Emissions in Social Housing Taskforce, chairing the Social Housing Resilience Group during Covid, co-chairing the Scottish Government’s Social Renewal Advisory Board and participating in the government’s Housing to 2040 Strategic Board, Homelessness Prevention Strategy Group and the Stewarding Group of Scotland’s Climate Assembly.

Thomas said: “After a lot of thought and soul-searching, I have decided to leave SFHA this year to free up time and space for all the other aspects of my life.

“It’s been an absolute privilege to do a job which aligns so perfectly with my values, professional expertise and personal experience. I feel incredibly grateful and lucky to have done it, and alongside such great people, not least the SFHA Board, staff and members, but also colleagues and partners in the housing field and beyond.

“This year marks SFHA’s fiftieth anniversary, so it is a fitting moment to make a change. I know that both SFHA and our members will continue their shared mission to provide safe, warm, affordable rented homes for people across Scotland, and I will always be proud to have played a part in that vital work."

Douglas Mackie, chair of SFHA’s board, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Sally, and on behalf of the board and SFHA’s members, I’d like to thank her for her extraordinary contribution to the housing association movement in Scotland.

"Over the past eight years she has championed the cause of securing a safe, warm, affordable home for everyone, and the vital role of housing associations and co-operatives in making Scotland a fairer and more equal country.

“Her dedication to representing, supporting and connecting SFHA’s members has been unwavering, and she leaves the organisation with the strong and solid foundations to build on her considerable legacy”.

Minister for Housing, Paul McLennan MSP, said: “For the past eight years Sally has been a key figure in Scotland’s housing landscape, providing leadership in a way that emphasised the value of realistic partnership and working constructively through the varied challenges the sector has faced in that time.

“Sally was instrumental in leading social housing’s early and effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, protecting tenants and addressing the 4 harms and was a driving force behind the Social Renewal recommendations drawing on the lessons learned from those unprecedented events.

"As we have navigated a succession of challenges since then – from the impacts of Brexit; surges in material costs and supply chain difficulties; the cost of living crisis to current challenges in homelessness and supply pressures - Sally has been instrumental in finding paths through these difficult issues, by offering both challenge and solutions.

“Her leadership has brought benefits to social housing organisations and tenants right across Scotland and I thank her for all she has done. I wish her the best of luck for her next endeavours. In SFHA’s 50th anniversary year she has ensured that SFHA have the strong foundations in place to continue their important work.”