Beth Peakall

picture of Beth Peakall

Beth is the Managing Director of Transformance Consulting. She helps people in both the private and public sectors to understand themselves and others better. This understanding leads to better communication, better teamwork and better relationships, transforming their performance and, through that, their business. Beth worked in the social housing field in Canada and the UK for 13 years in a variety of management positions. As a board member of Leicester Quaker Housing Association she has also seen housing from the boardroom perspective. She serves as the Education and Training Officer for the East Midlands branch of the CIH.

Housing Associations to the rescue?

The bad economic news just rolls on and on. It’s been interesting reading the last two or three issues of Inside Housing. Is this the time housing associations - after years of being a political football - gets to be centre stage in an economic recovery? I am intrigued by the idea of housing associations […]

June 19th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Snapping up bargains?

You can’t turn on any news these days – print, TV or radio –and escape the credit crunch and the possible impact on the housing market. I am not an economist, so I’m baffled at times by the contradictory information coming out. I worry that we will, if we are not careful, make the worst […]

May 17th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Quality is cheaper

Rebecca Mollart makes the point about considering “quality as part of floating support debate”. I work with a number of local councils, and one of them is “time and motion” bound. The floating wardens are given 8 minutes per week per older tenant – that is how their work load is allocated. Having managed a […]

May 3rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Lifetime homes standards

Three cheers - very loud ones - for Bill Randall! In this week’s Inside Housing, his column makes the clear case for lifetimes homes. I would point out that this is not just for home owners - think about the housing management case. How many transfer cases are on your books now because the home […]

April 11th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

A good old fashioned talking to

I read with great interest that, according to a Housemark study, that verbal warnings work better than court action in tackling anti-social behaviour. Apparently 85% of cases were successfully dealt with by talking to the person/people involved. Are we REALLY surprised by that? These statistics are borne out in case studies of Victim-Offender Mediation studies […]

April 6th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Neighbourhood reputation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently researched and published a report called Neighbourhood identity: people, time and place, which looked at three neighbourhoods in Stirling. In essence, it concludes that a neighbourhood’s reputation is set at an early stage and is difficult to change. Is that really surprising? Think of people. Once a reputation is established […]

March 23rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Communities - the physical and human

I caught part of a radio 4 programme on housing. The programme was talking about the demolition of the culture of cities by the demolition of its houses. Part of it was about the physical aspect and part was about the human element. A lot of blame went to various city planners in the 1930s, […]

March 14th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Eco-friendly is a hard sell

I’ve been reading with great interest the “Ecobuild” publication in a recent Inside housing. The reason for my interest is a storm of protest has erupted over a proposed eco-town in Leicestershire, the county where I live.
In brief, the proposal is for a 15,000 home development in the countryside area around Stoughton, Oadby and […]

February 24th, 2008 by Beth Peakall

More with nothing?

“Frontline pay cuts loom” is a terrible headline. Clearly supporting people in the community is the aim, but we are turning this into another care in the community debacle. There are stories in the press about the poor provision in some areas - and while the Ministers decry it and claim more will be done, […]

February 3rd, 2008 by Beth Peakall

Management training

“The need for high level skills such as leadership and multi-agency working has become apparent with the changes in the way housing professionals work across the sectors, often in a leading role.”
I read that just before the articles on Ujima. It is these basic skills of leadership and management which are needed to keep any […]

December 30th, 2007 by Beth Peakall