The Board of Soha has elected a new Chair.
Mark Goldring is the new head of the £52.7m turnover*, nearly 8000 home housing association. He is Chief Executive of Asylum Welcome, a refugee charity in Oxford, and before that was Chief Executive of Oxfam GB.
He says: “As a local resident and employer, I see only too clearly the challenges for people struggling to find decent, affordable homes and am keen to play a part in addressing them. What particularly attracts me to Soha is the combination of its mutual status – in which residents and staff are the formal owners of the organisation – and the very real effort to live this approach of engagement and accountability in everything it does.”
Soha owns and manages homes in South Oxfordshire and across neighbouring Districts and counties. In September 2024, it won the Best Affordable Housing category of the Inside Housing Development Award for a net zero scheme, featuring its own micro-grid, with Hook Norton Community Land Trust in Cherwell.
*Most of Soha’s income is from rent. £52.7m is Soha’s income, excluding property sales, in 2023-24.