Probation expert appointed Your Homes Newcastle chair

Your Homes Newcastle, the organisation which manages Newcastle’s 32,000 council homes, is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Chair of its Board, Steve Murphy.

Steve arrives from his position as Deputy National Offender & Regional Offender Manager in London and brings with him a wealth of experience in performance management, partnership working and governance.

A former Director General for the Probation Service for England and Wales, he is an accomplished communicator and an ‘expert adviser’ to the EU on strategic planning in correctional services.

He also has experience as a consultant with the Cabinet Office, Parole Board for England and Wales and the Life Sentence Review Commission for Northern Ireland.

Steve forged close links with Newcastle and the north-east as a probation officer and senior probation officer from 1975-84 in Scotswood, Byker, Heaton and Jesmond and thoroughly understands the specific challenges facing social housing providers in the city. He returned to the city as Chief Probation Officer for Northumbria in 1999.

Steve replaces outgoing chairman Bill Midgley who has been with the organisation since its inception in April 2004, overseeing a radical transformation agenda, masterminding YHN’s recent success in achieving three-star status and putting us on track to reach the Government’s Decent Homes Standard in all out properties by 2010.

YHN Chief Executive John Lee said: “Bill is going to be a very tough act to follow because his leadership and business expertise have helped to bring about huge progress and we are going to miss him very much.

“Under Bill’s guidance, we became the first ALMO in the north east to be awarded three stars and we now have excellent prospects for further improvement.

“However, Steve has vast range of strategic experience in the business environment and public sector at both policy and delivery level and I’m confident he can take us to the next stage of our development.”