Meet the Management Team

Gavin Cansfield, Chief Executive

Gavin joined us from Hanover in Hackney in November 2008, where he has spent the last four years as Chief Executive. He was also a member of the Executive team; his portfolio included responsibility for strategy and improvement focusing on strategic change and engagement opportunities for residents and staff.

With a background in housing, regeneration and homelessness, Gavin has worked for a number of housing associations in the West Midlands and London. He has managed services for homeless people, a housing advice service, regeneration programmes, including New Deal for Communities and, prior to joining Hanover, he was London Regional Director for Southern Housing Group.

In Hackney Gavin was a member of the Local Strategic Partnership – Team Hackney – where he was Board Champion for the Local Area Agreement and Community Engagement and served as co-chair of the Better Homes Partnership. He has been a member of the National Council for the National Housing Federation, is a member of the Commission for Co-operative and Mutual Housing and board member of the Housing Association Charitable Trust (‘hact’).

As Chief Executive, Gavin is responsible for leading the work of Tower Hamlets Homes together with the Senior Management Team. He works closely with the Chair of Tower Hamlets Homes, the Board and the council, and believes providing excellent services to our residents is the key to success at Tower Hamlets Homes.

Liz Ormston, Interim Head of Asset Management

Liz joins Tower Hamlets Homes from Tower Hamlets Council, bringing 20 years senior management experience in Housing.

She has held a number of challenging positions in local government including Lettings Manager at Ealing Council, Housing Service Manager for Poplar Neighbourhood and, most recently, as New Partnerships and Initiatives Manager.

Her new team, Asset Management, is central to delivering decent homes and is responsible for securing the resources to not only deliver decent homes but to develop initiatives to improve our estates in partnership with residents and the council.

Liz will also oversee the repairs service, delivery of the major works programme, lettings and health and safety.

Jamie Carswell, Director of Strategy and Performance

Jamie joins Tower Hamlets Homes from Hackney, where he was Deputy Executive Mayor, having had a leading role in strategic housing, performance management, communications and forming local strategic partnerships. He has worked in housing for 9 years, and has been involved throughout in corporate governance, regeneration and the relationships with tenants and residents; previously he worked in the NHS.

Jamie manages performance improvement and resident engagement across Tower Hamlets Homes, and oversees our governance arrangements, such as the Board and its sub-committees. His directorate also handles all communications with residents and staff and will be aiming to improve responses to members and residents’ complaints.

Paul Leo, Interim Head of Housing and Customer Services

Setting up his own market research company was one of a number of commercial roles Paul performed in his early career, before taking on several challenging positions in the public sector. These have included work for Merthyr Tydfil, Hull City and West Sussex councils as well as Hammersmith and Fulham Homes – and, most recently, as Director of Customer Services at Three Valleys Housing in Derbyshire.

Housing and Customer Services is responsible for many of the front line services and day to day management that our residents need. The service area is directly responsible for caretaking, rents, anti-social behaviour, tenancy and leasehold management and, through the partnership with the council, grass cutting, telephone responses and the local one-stop shop housing reception service.

Derek Young, Interim Head of Finance and Resources

Derek has worked in local government, with RSL's and other ALMO's at senior and director level positions. He has worked within Tower Hamlets, both for the Council and Tower Hamlets Community Housing for the last 10 years. 

The Finance and Resources team will oversee all aspects of budgets and financial accounting for Tower Hamlets Homes and for all payments. In addition, important areas such as value for money and the review of service level agreements with the Council will also be led by this team. Other areas include leaseholder service charges, billing and collection.