Working as an associate with Do-Well, a leadership practice dedicated to the success of others.

I am taking on a new challenge in my professional life and have set up Sue Powell Consultancy, offering a personal and bespoke consultancy and interim service. My specialist areas of interest include housing policy and strategy, lobbying and working with Local Elected Member. However, with a 30 year background in local government and housing I can offer a wide range of skills to meet the needs of individual organisations, from providing external support to tenants and residents to facilitation of partnership working.Please contact me to find out more about the services that I can offer.

Non Executive Director on Riverside's newly formed Neighbourhood Services Committee

I was formally elected to the NW Board in September 2013. I want to use my position to influence the Institute of Housing centrally, to ensure that the housing and related issues of the North West are taken into account within their policy and infleuncing postion.

I have responsibility for all aspects for the Forum's work, from preparing policy papers and responding to consultations to organising conferences and events and the day to day management of the Forum. Working with local politicians and Senior Officers from across Local Authorities, Housing Associations and others with an interest in housing, my role has included representing their views with external organisations, and on a national basis working to influence decisions for the benefit of the North West.The North West is an extremely diverse region, and reaching consensus on regional funding alloactions, and making recommendations on the former Housing Corporation grant allocations was undoubtedly one of my most challenging roles. However, working with Elected Members to make sure that they were fully briefed to make informed decisions, with my support they have always been able to reach this consensus.I have prepared evidence for members of Parliament, to support changes in policy and legislation. The most recent successful example of this has been the work I carried out on behalf of the Forum which was acknowledged as contributing to the Labour Party's decision to abandon the under occupancy deduction (or bedroom tax) if they are elected to form a Government in 2015.

I was coopted to the CIH NW Regional Committee initially to make the links across to the NW Housing Forum. During this time I was involved in the transistion from a Regional Committee to a Regional Board, as part of a fundamental review of the CIH's governance. Following the transistion I applied to become a full Member of the new Board, and was successfully appointed in September 2013

This position with Copeland Council offered me the opportunity to move my housing career in a different direction. No longer involved in front line provision, I was responsible for implementing monitoring and perfomance management systems across the housing service, as well as preparing documentation for the Housing Management CCT contracts (HMCCT). With overall responsibility for Tenant Participation, I was also involved in capacity building with local residents groups, equipping them to deal with HMCCT as well as monitoring the day to day aspects of the housing service.

This is where, after working in various organisations including the local library, an accountants and a post office, I eventually 'fell' into housing. Starting as a repairs clerk, I was involved with the day to day repairs of the Council Stock as well as void properties. I then transferred into Housing Management, initially dealing with rent arrears and complaints and then with the decentralisation of the housing service I moved into a more generic role for a specific geographic area.This was my foundation for a career in housing, with every role than I have taken on since then building on this valuable experience.