Anne RowlandsAnne Rowlands is Chief Executive of Railway Housing Association, a registered social landlord that has been providing quality housing to people since 1919. The association owns over 1,400 affordable rented homes located within 24 local authority areas, mainly in the North East and Yorkshire/Humberside areas of England, but also spreading as far as Herefordshire.
Anne has worked in the housing sector for 30 years, starting as an Housing Assistant for the London Borough of Lewisham before moving on to a number of varied roles, particularly specialising in care and support and development.
Married with two children, Anne is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Masters Degree in Management.
April 12th, 2013 by Anne Rowlands
As far as housing is concerned, Margaret Thatcher will always be remembered for introducing the Right to Buy, allowing people to buy their council homes at substantially discounted rates. If this policy had been supported by a house building programme that replaced the one million-plus council homes tha...
February 13th, 2013 by Anne Rowlands
The current horsemeat scandal, and in particular its recent discovery in ready meals, has got me thinking about how dependent we have become on processed food. For someone with a great interest in food (and a degree in Home Economics), it saddens me that we no longer seem to cook meals from scratch a...
November 11th, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
I read with interest this week details of a Freedom of Information request made by fullfact.org into the welfare reform changes and, in particular, housing benefit. Housing associations like mine are currently readying themselves for the impact of the planned welfare reform. In particular identifying these...
October 9th, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
After George Osborne’s announcement that a majority Conservative government would be looking to make welfare benefit savings of £10 billion by the first full year of the next Parliament, I am beginning to wonder whether there will be a welfare state left! The Tories’ plan to cut housi...
July 24th, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
There are a lot of mixed statements being made in the housing world at present and I can’t help thinking we could all benefit from some more joined-up thinking. It started with Lord David Freud claiming that the coalition government’s bedroom tax will ease overcrowding and help tackle th...
May 22nd, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
According to reports, the Government will start a consultation in June that could eventually see social housing tenants on high incomes being charged more rent. The ‘pay to stay’ scheme would allow landlords to charge higher rents to households earning £60,000 per year or more. Whilst in theory this appears to be a s...
April 6th, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
For most of us, writing and sending an email, texting from a smart-phone and surfing the internet has become a matter routine. However there are many others for whom this would be an alien concept. This is particularly true of older people. Whilst it’s true that the so-called ‘silver surfers’ (people aged ...
February 10th, 2012 by Anne Rowlands
I found myself agreeing with the findings of the recent Chartered Institute of Housing report - Does size matter - or does culture drive value for money? – that concluded that scale does not automatically provide efficiency. From the outset I must state that this view is not just because I am charge...
December 20th, 2011 by Anne Rowlands
For my last blog of 2011 I would just like to spare a thought for those people who will not be lucky enough to have a roof over their head this Christmas. I was in London last week and whilst it was lovely to see the Christmas lights and the stores busy, I was also always not far away from someone s...
November 23rd, 2011 by Anne Rowlands
With much hype this week, the Government unveiled its long awaited housing strategy pledging to unlock the housing market and ‘get Britain building again’. Laying the foundations: a housing strategy for England undoubtedly contains some positive measures, but much of it has also appears to have merel...
