Who we are

We are a community-focused organisation formed on 1st March 2020 following the amalgamation of Howard Cottage Housing Association (HCHA) and Welwyn Garden City Housing Association (WGCHA). The two legacy organisations share a combined 170-year history, and our strategy is to provide good-quality, affordable homes while meeting local housing needs.

Our Corporate Strategy priorities are building more homes, investing in existing ones, and ensuring safe, reliable services for residents. Health and safety for customers and staff remains a central focus of governance and compliance.

We are making good progress delivering on our first Corporate Strategy 2022 – March 2027.

We:

  • Recently launched a new resident portal, providing all the information residents might need in one place, which is accessible at all times.
  • Developed a comprehensive Asset Management Strategy. This gives us useful insight into how our homes perform, allowing us to identify any properties that do not meet the future aspirations for FGCH.
  • Completed several new developments, including six new affordable homes in Dunton, Bedfordshire, in September 2025, and progress is being made on a 51-home extra care scheme in Panshanger, Welwyn Garden City.
  • We manage 2,370 homes, an increase of 60 homes within a period of 12 months.

Publications of interest

Below is a list of useful documents:

 

Our Board

  • Tracy Allison
    Chair

    Tracy Allison is Chief Executive Officer at West Kent Housing Association and is passionate about the role housing associations can play within society. She is a finance director by profession, with an early career spanning the charity and commercial sectors. Tracy has held senior roles including Deputy Chief Executive Officer at The Hyde Group, Finance Director at Origin Housing and Non-Executive roles with St Mungo’s, a leading homelessness charity and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

  • Alessandra Mongiardino
    Board Member

    Alessandra is an accomplished executive and independent Non-Executive Director with over 25 years of international Risk Management experience having held senior roles in large banks and asset management firms. She is a Non-Executive Director at Triodos Bank UK, a member of the Financial Services Faculty Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the former Director of Financial and Strategic Risk at NatWest.

  • Craig Horn
    Development & Finance Committee Chair

    Craig has over 20 years’ experience of working within the housing development sector. His experience includes working for a number of large housing associations as well as Affordable Housing consultancy and a Local Authority development company.

  • Jo Savage
    Vice Chair

    As Chief Executive of Greatwell Homes, Jo brings her wealth of experience to the Board. Jo is the former Chair of the National Housing Federation in the East Midlands and Women In Social Housing (WISH), and an experienced Non-Executive Director, currently at Eastlight Community Homes and First Garden Cities Homes.

  • Lawrence Shulman
    Board Member

    Lawrence is a Project Supervisor with the National Grid. He is responsible for working on critical infrastructure projects in and around high-voltage electricity transmission assets.

  • Matthew Evans
    Audit and Risk Committee Chair

    Matthew is the Head of Risk & Assurance for a London based Housing Association where he is responsible for enterprise risk management, internal audit, and regulatory compliance. He is a qualified internal auditor and has a Masters in Corporate Governance.

  • Moreen Pascal
    Remuneration, Nominations & Governance Committee Chair

    Moreen is lead associate, national Board member development programmes for Housing Diversity Network, Her career includes leading business support, charity sector and local government services. Her focus has been on safeguarding and social justice, leadership and workforce development initiatives. She is also a Committee Chair at Unity Housing & Enterprise.

  • Natasha Valladares
    Board Member

    Natasha is a senior leader at a large regional authority managing multi-million-pound capital and revenue investment programmes. She has experience across the public sector in strategy development and implementation, service improvement and programme delivery with a particular focus on reducing housing inequality.

  • Simon Latson
    Board Member

    Simon is a Chartered Building Surveyor and has been involved in the surveying and development of residential housing for the last 20 years. He is Head of Building Consultancy Living at a large multi-national practice and advises both the public and private sectors.

  • David Ames
    Board Member

    David’s most recent full-time role was as Executive Director of Development and Stewardship with Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation. He is currently lecturing on the postgraduate planning course at University of Hertfordshire and is an acknowledged expert on Garden Cities. David is a NED for a national cancer charity. David lives in an original early Letchworth Garden City home.

Our Leadership Team

You can find more about our Leadership Team here