Bromford boss blogs £500 expenditure pledge

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Finance

Bromford Group's chief executive Mick Kent has announced that the landlord is now publishing any expenditure over £500.

Mr Kent revealed the news on his blog, where he wrote "we want this information out there, to help inform everyone – colleagues, customers, stakeholders and people who might be thinking about working for us – to know about us, our values, how we do business and whether we are in the giving vein".

A number of housing associations are now publishing all of their £500+ expenditure, in repsonse to housing minister Grant Shapps call for greater transparency in the sector.

Last month Adactus Housing Group started publishing all expenditure over £99.99 on its website.

In the blog Mr Kent outlined Bromford's keen interaction with social media, and revealed that staff are encouraged to use Facebook and Twitter whilst working. He also claimed that a recent survey found that almost half of the most-followed people working in social housing work at Bromford.

Mr Kent added: "There has been quite a bit of fuss about whether the housing minister is right to demand that we publish all the  £500 stuff. Well, even if you don’t really buy my ideas above, maybe you will this; isn’t it just a bit like social media? 'If we don’t participate it will be done to us'."