Swan Housing director steps down amid merger and non-compliance

Pat Billingham, chair of Swan, said in the group’s filing to the market: “James King, our group finance director, is leaving the business in December after more than nine years of committed and dedicated service.

“The board would like to thank James for his hard work and support throughout his time with Swan.”

The move came days after the group on 21 December 2021 appointed Susan Hickey as its acting boss “until further notice”.

Ms Hickey spent 10 years as Peabody’s chief financial officer.

Swan’s long-serving chief executive John Synnuck is being replaced by Ms Hickey as he is “unwell and temporarily away from the office”, the group said.

Mr Synnuck is due to retire in March 2022, having been chief executive at the Essex-based landlord since it was formed in 1994.

Swan appointed two more individuals to its group board as co-optees. These are Matthew Bailes, chief executive of Paradigm Housing, and Paul Phillips, former chief financial officer at Notting Hill Genesis.

The raft of appointments comes after Swan was downgraded to a G3/V3 non-compliant rating by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in December 2021.

The RSH said this was because there had “been a material deterioration in Swan’s financial position since its last business plan was submitted”.

Increasing development costs and delayed sales have put pressure on Swan’s financial covenants.

This has meant that its ability to maintain covenant compliance is “reliant on the continued co-operation and agreement of third parties”, the regulatory judgement on 10 December said.

It added that Swan’s reliance on third parties to resolve the situation represented a “fundamental loss of control on the part of the board and executive”.

The RSH also said in the regulatory judgement that Swan was working with the regulator to address the issues and had commissioned external advisors to help.

On the same day, Swan and Orbit Group announced that they were in discussions to form a “partnership” and create a 60,000-home landlord.