How we are run
Homes and Neighbourhoods is responsible for providing safe, good quality council homes and reliable housing services. Strong leadership, clear decision-making, and tenant oversight help us make sure we meet our responsibilities.
This page explains:
- who is responsible for what in Homes and Neighbourhoods
- how decisions about housing services are made
- how safety, quality, and performance are checked
- how tenants and leaseholders have a voice in shaping services.
Our leadership
The Regulator has introduced four consumer standards that tell us what we must do to support our tenants. Our leadership is responsible for ensuring these standards are delivered for our tenants:
- Your home must be safe, well maintained, and repaired to a decent standard.
- Landlords must carry out safety checks, respond to urgent repairs quickly, and keep properties in a good state of repair.
- You can expect clear repair timescales, safety checks in your home, and improvements when homes are not meeting the required standards.
- Landlords must keep neighbourhoods safe, tackle anti-social behaviour, and support community wellbeing.
- Landlords must prevent and respond to anti-social behaviour, work with partners on safety issues and to improve tenant's lives. Support victims of hate crime or domestic abuse.
- You can expect clear anti-social behaviour policies, timely action on reports. Support when you feel you are not safe and help when you are struggling with things like money.
- Landlords must manage tenancies fairly, lawfully, and consistently while providing clear tenancy information.
- Landlords must follow fair lettings and eviction practices, provide tenancy agreements and rights information, and support household stability.
- You can expect clear rules on rent, transfers, mutual exchanges, and when tenancy action might be taken.
- Landlords must be open about services, performance, and decisions and let tenants influence these decisions.
- Landlords must publish performance data and tenant satisfaction measures, follow a fair complaints process, and involve tenants in decisions.
- You can expect easy access to information about repairs, rents and complaints outcomes. Opportunities for you to give feedback on our policies and plans and tell us what is important to you.
All Homes and Neighbourhoods Service standards and policies.
Meet the team
David Shepherd, Executive Director for Place
- Overall responsibility for Homes and Neighbourhoods within the council.
Phil Jones - Service Director
- Responsible for overall delivery of the Consumer Standards.
Phil leads the whole Homes and Neighbourhoods service. His job is to make sure every council home in Kirklees is safe, warm and affordable, and that tenants get the service they expect.
He sets the direction for the service, working with councillors and senior colleagues to turn council priorities into results for tenants. He also oversees how the service is performing, how it is governed, and how we work with partners in health, community safety and emergency services.
Phil has 26 years' experience in housing, including more than 10 years at director level. He has worked in housing management, repairs, assets and growth across Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire before joining Kirklees.
Why I work in social housing
"A safe, warm home is often what makes everything else in someone's life possible. My colleagues are passionate about making that difference, and I see it every day."
A bit about me
Phil loves walking in the Calder Valley and does a bit of mountain biking. He has a Patterdale Terrier called Big Al who keeps him busy.
Lisa Ramsden - Head of Housing Management
Responsible for:
- Neighbourhood and Community Standard
- Tenancy Standard
Lisa leads the housing management service. Her teams handle the day-to-day work of managing estates and tenancies across Kirklees, from tenancy support to community safety.
Her focus is on hearing the tenant's voice and using what tenants tell us to shape the service. She has led the introduction of new policies and strategies to improve the way we work, and has made significant improvements to how we report on performance.
Lisa has more than 30 years' combined experience across housing and community safety, at both operational and senior levels. She previously led a large multi-agency anti-social behaviour service within community safety.
Why I work in social housing
"I spent my childhood living in social housing, so I've seen first-hand the challenges people can face. I'm dedicated to improving services to meet the real needs of tenants and communities."
A bit about me
Lisa has three children, a dog and a cat. She loves travelling, with Northumberland a firm favourite.
Erran Taylor - Head of Housing Governance and Assurance
Responsible for:
- Transparency, Influence, and Accountability Standard
Erran leads the teams responsible for ensuring services are well run, transparent and continuously improving, with tenants’ voices at the heart of everything we do.
Her areas include service development, resident engagement (covering customer experience, support and information, and tenant voice), and assurance (including policy, compliance, business support and performance). She has led the council’s alignment to the new RSH Consumer Standards, implemented a strengthened quality assurance approach, and is responsible for delivering the tenant voice strategy.
Erran began her career in project management in 2007, before moving into strategy and transformation roles across the third sector and local government. She later specialised in social housing, joining Homes and Neighbourhoods as Head of Service in April 2025. She is currently studying for an MSc in Housing Leadership at the University of Huddersfield.
Why I work in social housing
"I grew up in social housing, so I know how much a good home, and being listened to, really matters. I want to make sure our residents get both."
A bit about me
Outside of work, she enjoys live music, travel, and keeping up with her two young children.
David Brook - Head of Repairs and Maintenance
Responsible for:
- Safety and Quality Standard
David leads the repairs and maintenance service. Alongside Joe Keating, he is responsible for making sure our homes meet the Safety and Quality of Homes consumer standard, set by the Regulator of Social Housing.
His teams handle everything from emergency call-outs and day-to-day repairs to the compliance work that keeps homes safe: gas, electrical safety, legionella, and damp, mould and condensation. He is also responsible for the service's operational and financial performance, with a focus on quality, value for money and continuous improvement.
David provides assurance to senior leaders, councillors and regulators on performance, risk and compliance. Tenant experience is a core priority, with an emphasis on engagement, understanding vulnerability and using feedback to shape the service.
David has nearly 40 years' experience working for Kirklees Council and has held nine different roles during that time. Apprentice-trained as a joiner, he brings strong practical, technical and operational insight to his leadership role.
Why I work in social housing
"Having spent my whole career in local government, I know the difference council services make. Providing safe, reliable and high-quality homes for residents is what it's all about."
A bit about me
David enjoys spending time with family and friends at his caravan on the East Coast, particularly walking his dogs on the beach. Despite a long career, he still enjoys the variety of the role. No two days are ever the same.
Joe Keating - Head of Asset Management and Building Safety
Responsible for:
- Safety and Quality Standard
Joe leads the Housing Assets service. His teams make sure our homes are safe, well maintained and meet all regulations. That covers the big improvement programmes, like new kitchens, bathrooms, roofs and fire safety works, as well as the council's longer-term plans for sustainability and energy efficiency.
He is also responsible for growing the number of council homes we have through acquisitions and new development.
Joe has more than 36 years' experience in housing, construction and public services, over 20 of them in social housing. He started out as a qualified joiner and worked his way up through surveying and leadership roles, including nearly two decades at Stockport Homes. He has secured more than £80 million in external funding for energy efficiency and retrofit work, and has led programmes recognised at national level.
Why I work in social housing
"I'm passionate about improving people's lives through safe, good-quality homes. It's work that makes a real and lasting difference."
A bit about me
Joe lives with his wife, stepson, a French Bulldog and two cats. He has a soft spot for aviation, cosmology and quantum physics, and plays a bit of snooker (still working on his technique).
Our Governance
Homes and Neighbourhoods is part of Kirklees Council. The council's Cabinet and the Portfolio Holder for Transport and Housing provide strategic oversight of housing services.
Our senior leadership team meets regularly to:
- monitor how services are performing
- Homes and Neighbourhoods Senior Leadership Team
- review safety and legal compliance of our services
- Homes and Neighbourhoods Assurance Board
- act on tenant feedback
- Tenant Led Panel
We're regulated by external bodies who set the standards we must meet:
- Regulator of Social Housing: sets consumer standards for housing services
- Building Safety Regulator: oversees building safety.
- Housing Ombudsman: investigates complaints we can't resolve
- Health and Safety Executive: enforces workplace and property safety law.
These organisations can take action if we don't meet our responsibilities.
How you can shape our services
You can influence how we run Homes and Neighbourhoods:
- Tenant Led Panel: tenants who meet with senior managers to scrutinise performance and shape decisions. Find out how to get involved
- Tenant and Resident Associations: local groups that raise issues in your area. Find your local TRA
- Compliments and complaints: we use what you tell us to improve. Give a compliment or make a complaint
See our Get Involved pages for all the ways you can have your say.
How we check we're doing a good job
We monitor our performance and publish the results:
- Tenant Satisfaction Measures: annual survey results showing how satisfied tenants are.
- Complaints data: what you've complained about and what we've done about it.
- Quarterly performance: regular updates on repairs, safety checks, and other key measures.
View our results on our How we are performing page.
