The ACT has a new housing supremo.
Former first assistant secretary in the Department of Land, Environment and Planning Peter Guild started in the new job as general-manager of ACT Housing yesterday.
He said his main aim is to carry out the Hilmer report recommendation to separate the asset management of public housing from the social objectives of the Government.
Mr Guild had been head of land management at DELP since 1989. Moiya Haynes is now acting in that position and John Thwaites, from Parks and Conservation, is acting her position in lease administration.
Mr Guild said the Hilmer recommendations would enable the ACT Housing Trust to be more “”client focused” and enable the social objective to be costed better.
An example of client focus was the direct debiting of rent at no charge to tenants which started yesterday.
There were 12,000 ACT Housing Trust properties in the ACT _ about 14 per cent of the total. The highest concentration was in Ainslie at 30 per cent.
Mr Guild said he hoped the clear separation of the functions would enable the best management and use of assets to meet the Government’s social objectives.