Key Documents:

Corporate Plan 2025-2028

Annual Report and Accounts 2024-2025

About the Role

Public purpose and accountability

The Chief Executive will lead the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) at a time of sustained importance for the organisation and the sector it serves. The appointment carries clear public purpose, shaping how regulation supports safe, good quality homes, protects the interests of tenants and underpins a viable and well governed social housing sector. Working with the Chair, Board and Executive Team, the Chief Executive will guide RSH in the delivery of its remit across England.

RSH is a well-established regulator with a clear remit. This remit has expanded over recent years and has been supported by substantial growth in the organisation. The Chief Executive is responsible for taking this forward, ensuring regulation is applied with judgement and consistency, supporting outcomes for existing tenants and the delivery of much needed new social homes, while stewarding the regulatory framework as it changes to meet new challenges.

As an independent body reporting to Parliament, RSH operates within a clear framework of accountability, with the Chief Executive holding Accounting Officer responsibility for organisational performance, governance and the stewardship of public funds. Integrity and sound judgement sit at the heart of the Chief Executive’s responsibilities, shaping decision making that is proportionate, evidence based and clearly communicated.

Leadership of regulation

The Chief Executive will provide inspiration and vision to lead the organisation as a whole, working through the executive team to support a cohesive approach to leadership and delivery. Alongside this, responsibility extends to ensuring RSH is equipped to deliver effective and efficient regulation. The emphasis is on building on existing success, while ensuring the organisation effectively anticipates and responds to changes in the sector and government policy.

A central responsibility is oversight of the regulatory framework and standards for social housing, applied in a proportionate and consistent way across a diverse range of providers. This work is informed by an understanding of the wider housing environment and active engagement across the sector, allowing differences in scale and operating context to be recognised while expectations and outcomes remain clear and understood.

External confidence and representation

Externally, the Chief Executive will represent RSH with assurance and care in relationships with ministers, Members of Parliament, select committees, investors and key partner organisations. The post calls for credibility in formal settings, alongside the ability to engage directly when it adds value and to step back when it does not.

This appointment sits at the heart of how social housing is regulated in England, carrying responsibility that shapes the sector and touches the lives of tenants.

What We're Looking For

Senior leadership and judgement

Senior leadership experience underpins this appointment, alongside the assurance to lead an organisation with a prominent public profile and a clear statutory role. This experience may have been gained as a Chief Executive or in a senior executive position within a regulatory, public or comparably governed environment, where scrutiny is part of the landscape and decisions carry real consequence.

Comfort operating within formal accountability and governance frameworks is essential. This includes taking decisions of significant importance and doing so with care and integrity. An understanding of independence and public responsibility will shape how judgement is exercised, particularly where issues are finely balanced and require careful consideration.

Decision making in complex settings

Effectiveness in the role is shaped by clarity and proportionate decision making. There will be experience of leading through complexity and maintaining focus when matters are contested or uncertain, with governance and constructive challenge forming part of how sound decisions are reached.

Strong professional relationships sit at the centre of leadership at this level. There will be a record of working well with Boards and senior stakeholders, and an appreciation of relationships built on trust, respect and shared responsibility.

Credibility in external settings is important. This will include engaging with ministers, senior officials and sector leaders, and representing an organisation in formal and high profile environments, including parliamentary committees, with assurance and discretion.

Motivation and professional integrity

Experience gained in complex, regulated or publicly accountable environments will be relevant. While direct experience of social housing is not a prerequisite, the ability to build a robust understanding of unfamiliar policy, operational and sector contexts at pace is critical. The emphasis is on engaging with complexity, listening carefully and reaching balanced conclusions in the context of competing pressures.

Motivation is shaped by public purpose and by the responsibility that comes with leading an organisation of national significance. This appointment will resonate with those drawn to stewardship rather than reinvention, and to leadership where perspective, integrity and judgement inform how the work is carried forward.