Piers Williamson has taken up his role as chair of Sustainability for Housing (SfH), the board overseeing the Sustainable Reporting Standard (SRS) for the social housing sector.

Appointed in August this year, Piers was formally inducted as chair at the September SfH board meeting. He joins the board following the previous announcement that Brendan Sarsfield would be stepping down after three years in the role.

Piers has extensive experience in the banking and financial services industry, and was formerly chief executive of The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC), the leading bond aggregator for the social housing sector, for more than two decades.

Piers said: “At a time when many Housing Associations are dealing with a combination of retrofit, carbon neutrality and tenant fuel poverty, along with other social pressures, ESG, and the Sustainability Reporting Standard promoted by SfH, is a vital lens for them.  

“They can use it as a tool to integrate their own internal management oversight, they can increasingly benchmark their progress against other HAs and they can evidence to external stakeholders the steps that they are taking.

“We’ve witnessed incredible commitment and progress over recent years, with more than 100 housing providers and funders having adopted the SRS as a benchmark to measure, report and enhance their ESG performance.”

Sarah Forster, CEO and Co-founder of The Good Economy, the secretariat to SfH which also led the recruitment process, said: “With a proven track record for driving progress in both the social housing and financial housing sectors, Piers has a wealth of experience and will make a great new Chair of the Board.”