ABOUT | Our People

Trustees.

Chairman

Michael Gelling OBE, CIHM (Hon) (Chairman)

Michael has been Chairman of TAROE Trust since it was established in 2013.

Martyn Kingsford OBE TD FRICS FCIH

Martyn has been a Trustee of TAROE Trust since 2014 and before then was Honorary Policy Advisor for TAROE from 2000.

Valerie Knight

Valerie worked in customer services from 2005 to 2017.

Other to add – but is this an approach that works? It’s a bit clicky/fiddly – click an image for full info, might not work so well with screen readers, though these days I’d hope they would handle pop-ups.

Michael Gelling OBE, CIHM (Hon) (Chairman)

Chairman

Michael has been Chairman of TAROE Trust since it was established in 2013.

Michael is the Chairperson of his local estate Neighbourhood Forum, Palace Fields in Runcorn, Halton and was also a founder member of Runcorn Residents Federation, which traditionally covered a New Town area but has sadly been disbanded. Michael served on the local Council for sixteen years and held several key positions in that time including that of Vice Chair of Housing. Michael continued his voluntary work commitment in the housing arena through his membership of the Tenants’ and Residents’ Organisations of England.

Michael served as a Director of the Housing Ombudsman Service representing TAROE for a full six- year period.

In Runcorn where he lives, Michael has been involved in many voluntary and community groups which cover the disciplines of community safety, poverty, disability, youth, welfare rights and drug issues.

Michael is Chair of the seventy (FTE) place Acorn Community Nursery, very proud to have been the Chair of the very successful Halton Credit Union from its inception in 1988 to 2017 and is equally proud to have been the Company Secretary of Halton Community Partnership Trust since 1996 to 2016, a one-stop shop for the voluntary sector.

Michael has a background in personnel and has served, since 1978, as a lay member of the Employment Tribunals Service and through that appointment has been the only Chairperson of the Liverpool Employment Tribunals Members’ Association and recently become Treasurer of the Council of Employment Tribunal Members Associations.

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Martyn Kingsford OBE TD FRICS FCIH
Martyn has been a Trustee of TAROE Trust since 2014 and before then was Honorary Policy Advisor for TAROE from 2000.

Martyn has been a Trustee of TAROE Trust since 2014 and before then was Honorary Policy Advisor for TAROE from 2000.

He grew up in Bilborough, Nottingham and started his career with Nottingham City Council in 1963. Following senior appointments at Lambeth and at Thamesmead he became Director of Housing at Kensington and Chelsea in 1984 and then in 1995 Chief Execitive of RBKC Tenant Management Organisation leaving the TMO in 2001. For eight years, in the 1980s, Martyn was Honorary Policy Adviser to London Boroughs Association and co chair of the London Wide Homeless Working Party.

Martyn has chaired four Housing Associations over the past 40 years and has been Chief Executive of three Housing Organsations. He was a member of the NHF Tenant Involvement Commission and a member the team establishing the Nation Tenants Voice. Martyn, throughout his career, has been influenced by Colin Ward’s “Tenants take over” published in Anarchy, January 1968.

In 2014 Martyn was appointed an OBE for services to housing, tenants and community engagement.

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Valerie Knight

Valerie worked in customer services from 2005 to 2017.

Valerie has extensive experience of volunteering at PA Housing to get residents voices heard and in scrutinising the services that PA Housing supplies to tenants.

Valerie is also Deputy Vice Chair of the Elmbridge tenants forum.

Valerie also sits on the PA Housing’s Complaints Panel and its Equality and Diversity panel.

Valerie also recently joined the Housing Ombudsman’s Residents Panel.

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