31 March 2023
Obituary
Social housing and ALMO champion Janet Storar MBE
Janet Storar MBE, social housing champion and former Chair of Nottingham City Homes, has died after a short illness.
Janet was NCH’s first Tenant Board Chair from 2009 to 2016 and an integral part of the story of NCH. More recently she had served on the East Midlands Regional Board and was a member of the Housing Ombudsman’s new Resident Panel.
A regular at tenant events and a vocal ambassador for her ALMO landlord, she had been an early campaigner for the Decent Homes Standard that ALMOs were set up to deliver.
Tributes have been paid to her by NCH staff past and present who regarded her as a key member of the NCH team and remember her fondly.
As the Housing and Planning Bill passed through Parliament in 2015, she made it clear that she was incensed by many of its provisions such as ‘pay to stay’ and the sale of council homes to fund Right to Buy and promote home ownership, describing the bill as an attempt to penalise social housing and stop it being a viable tenure of choice.
She walked with NFA senior officers at the Westminster March for Homes rally and accepted invitations to be a platform speaker at hosts of marches and protests. She wrote many letters to MPs and peers asking them to intervene to amend some of the bill’s more radical provisions. Her words were quoted on a number of occasions by the politicians she wrote to and recorded in Hansard as the bill passed through its various readings.
She said at the time: “I don’t flatter myself that it will make one iota of difference, but at least I am going out registering my disappointment, both as a tenant of 40 years and an outgoing Chair of Nottingham City Homes.”
Janet’s encouragement persuaded hundreds of fellow tenants to become more involved in their landlord’s governance by joining its various community and scrutiny panels, making a major contribution to NCH’s award-winning customer engagement work.
Her MBE was awarded in 2013 for a lifetime of service to social housing, and she regarded this as her greatest achievement.
“They say that good things come in small parcels, and Janet embodied that. She was a small lady with a huge spirit. We’ll miss her,” said a former NCH colleague.
Eamon McGoldrick, NFA Managing Director, paid tribute to her commitment and passion for the social housing sector and the people it serves. “This is very sad news. Janet was an outstanding tenant chair and she absolutely personified the quality, committed tenant voice that the ALMO model thrives on. She is remembered with great affection by everyone at the NFA who had the privilege of knowing her and working with her,” he said.