Welcome to WISH East

Stephani is currently the Housing Manager at Broadland Housing Group in Norfolk.  Stephani started as the post girl in the Finance team in 1997 and it became apparent after a number of years that she wanted to work in the housing team where she loved to go and listen to them talk about the work they did and hear the interaction with tenants.  Stephani was successful in getting a job as a Housing Officer in 2004 and worked her way up to her current position.  Stephani is a chartered member of the CIH and is very proud of this. 

Stephani loves her work and her passion for the housing sector is as  Stephani is keen to encourage others to pursue a career in social housing and for people to experience the sheer brilliance of it as a sector and the variety of roles that it can offer.  

Stephani is passionate about fairness and equality in the sector and this is one of her reasons for joining WISH East.  Stephani believes much more can be done to recognise and promote the value of women in the sector and Stephani believes women can do more to support each other and “be their true selves when they are at work”. Stephani believes WISH is a place where she can add value through being herself. 

Isabel has recently started as a Customer Experience Director for Stonewater Housing. She has come to Stonewater from Hightown Housing Association where she was a Head of Service in their care and supported housing department. Isabel is a chartered member of CIH and vice chair of the CIH East region board. Isabel has worked in a range of housing association and local authority environments, with experience spanning general needs, sheltered housing, specialist care and support, and homelessness. Isabel has led on operational and digital transformation projects. 

Emma has over 20 years’ property experience gained both in private and public sector, in sales and rentals. In addition to a strong policy background gained in local authority. she comes to us fresh off the success of establishing a private rented sector housing company within a local authority setting in South Cambridgeshire. Emma says she lives, breath and eats property and says Rentplus was her next natural step. She is keen to make home ownership a reality for all and looks forward to seeing Rentplus rolled out across the region. Emma has also set up a local food bank and worked with schools to educate children about social issues. 

Anna has worked in social housing for over 30 years and still loves it!  Having had a number of ‘real’ jobs including with several different HA and LA providers, for the last 15 or so years she has been supporting organisations to improve; including a period of time as a Housing Inspector at the Audit Commission, Director of Consultancy at CIH and at Capita and also through her own limited company. She remains as passionate as ever about improving measurable outcomes for people who experience social housing services, and for the staff who provide them. Being a Board member of the Eastern WISH group compliments her roles as CIH Mentor and CIH Regional Board Member in supporting colleagues to be the best versions of themselves.

Claire Astbury is currently working as Interim Service Director, on secondment from her usual role as Head of Housing Strategy & Development at Luton Borough Council.  At Luton she leads on council housebuilding, energy efficiency, housing strategy and enabling affordable housing in the town. Prior to joining Luton in 2017 she represented housing associations across the East of England for the National Housing Federation.  She started her housing career in housing association allocations in 1995 and has worked in frontline and policy roles at local councils across England.

Alma is Head of Marketing and Communications at Greenacre Recruitment in Hertfordshire, a progressive and forward-thinking social housing recruitment consultancy heavily involved in the research and development of strategy changes in leadership, efficiency, equality and diversity across all areas of the sector. Alma writes and collaborates on research and topics and articles with Greenacre aimed at supporting, advising and reflecting on the current issues facing the sector, and is also a contributing author at Housing Futures, a global online social housing magazine.

Hannah is responsible for the operational management of Saffron which includes Housing Operations, Asset Management, the Customer Contact Centre, the community alarm service company Contact Care and Business Transformation, she is also currently a Board member for Eastern Procurement.

Hannah has 19 years’ experience across the public sector including positions in the police, social services and housing undertaking roles such as a director at national housing association, as well as working for other East of England housing associations.

Hannah is a Women in Social Housing finalist for professional of the year 2019. 

Anna’s career journey spans over 20 years - from leaving home on the Isle of Skye to go to the Glasgow School of Art, she is now in living in Essex and working in Hertford.

Having always worked in fast-paced customer centric retail, hospitality and manufacturing environments, she has spent the last 6 years, in the Social Housing sector, specifically in reactive maintenance as People Manager with MCP Property Services.

As an active member of the Lanarkshire Board of the Developing Young Workforce in Scotland before relocating, she is keen to drive MCP’s ethos of supporting people into sustainable employment. Creating opportunities for young people to experience the world of work and start an apprenticeship is not only the right thing to do in terms of supporting individuals and the local community but also ensures businesses have the skills required for the future.

Isabel is member of the leadership team at Grand Union Housing Group. She is Director of Customer Experience, ensuring they provide an efficient and effective front-line service for their customers. She also leads the group’s business transformation programme.

Isabel began her career in housing at Longhurst Housing Group and Orbit Homes before joining Rockingham Forest Housing (RFH) in a housing management role in 1999. She had several roles at RFH including Operations Director from 2010 and Deputy Chief Executive from 2011. She joined Grand Union Housing in 2016 after RFH joined the Grand Union group.

Isabel is a qualified coach and has a keen interest in Japanese customer service culture.

Suzanna has spent the last 19 years working in the housing sector in a variety of roles. Her experience has been gained mostly in Local Authorities across Essex and East London managing teams of staff across a wide range of areas. This has included Strategic housing, affordable housing development, planning policy, housing policy, homelessness, provision of specialist supported housing and finding innovative solutions to meet housing need.

Suzanna now works at Homes England in the affordable housing team, working with Registered Providers and Local Authorities to fund new affordable housing.

Following a successful 20 year career in FTSE 100 global organisations, including Granada PLC, Sainsbury's, Compass Group and SSP Group where she was Global Senior Vice President for Communications and Business Development bringing brands such as M and S Simply Food, Starbucks and Caviar House and Prunier to travel hubs, Amanda set her consultancy - Perfectstorm in 2010.  

She has a number of high-profile clients in the housing sector and led on the Clarion merger where she is still a shareholder.  She has also led on commercial benefit realisation in other mergers, growth and change programmes, including Karbon Homes, L and Q and Iceni Homes.  Amanda led the first Ministerial round table for the Green Paper consultation post Grenfell in the East of England, working with the Housing Minister, MHCLG and the Cabinet Office.  She is also Associate Commercial Director for Housemark and is leading on their brand repositioning and growth.   Her non housing portfolio has included the Lawn Tennis Association, Harvey Nichols, Women Ahead/Moving Ahead and Elm an ethical older person’s provider. 

Through her work with her retained Communications and PR clients across the sector she believes passionately in leveraging the value that East of England organisations can bring to the national and regional agenda.   She mentors several developing women both in and out of the sector.    Amanda is advanced media trained and a regular public speaker.