Piers Williamson, former CEO of The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC), has been appointed Chair of Sustainability for Housing (SfH), the body that oversees the Sustainability Reporting Standards (SRS) for the UK social housing sector. Williamson replaces Brendan Sarsfield, who announced in June that he was stepping down after three years in the role. The SRS is designed to help the housing sector measure, report and enhance its ESG performance in a “transparent, consistent and comparable way”. “The ESG and sustainability agendas have never been more important and I’m excited to build on the momentum that SfH has already created in the sector,” Williamson said. “Despite extreme financial challenges, housing associations have made strong progress on ESG over the last three years, thanks to the SRS. I am determined to expand on this progress and help social landlords rise to the challenge that net zero poses.” At THFC, Williamson oversaw a loan book that grew to more than £8 billion. Under him, the organisation also created a sustainable bond framework and launched THFC Sustainable Finance – an initiative aiming to help housing associations reach net-zero targets.
