15th January 2026

BHT CEO David Chaffey gave a very thought provoking talk at our All Members meeting.

David told us he had been a housing officer with Mid Sussex District Council when they owned and managed their own housing stock prior to the Large Scale Voluntary Transfer around 1990. He had then worked for the various permutations of the housing association formed for the Transfer until the final merger into Clarion, the country’s biggest housing provider, where he was Resident Involvement Manager. He had then joined BHT as Housing Director, subsequently CEO.

He described the work that they did, involving many community interactions. They provide housing for vulnerable people as well as working to prevent homelessness. This included sheltered and supported housing, providing benefits and welfare advice, addiction counselling and many other advocacy and supportive services.

They had some access to public funds and some sponsorships but had recently been forced to sell a property they owned to ensure that they could finance their operations. They worked with MSDC to provide a number of these services.

David answered a number of questions from members, confirming that the new Rent Act would have an adverse impact on the availability of private rented housing because many private landlords were selling up rather than adopt the stricter requirements for safety and health regulation under the Act.

The question was also asked, why cannot Councils fund their own building programmes, as Crawley Borough council have done?

Find out more about BHT Sussex.