Kingdom Housing Association appoints HBJ Gateley to legal panel

28th December 2011

Social housing head also named vice-chair of Trust Housing Association.

Law firm HBJ Gateley has been appointed by social housing provider Kingdom Housing Association (KHA) to its new panel of legal advisers after a competitive tender process.

HBJ Gateley has been awarded seven out of the nine areas of legal work tendered by Fife-based KHA, which has 330 employees and 3000 properties across Fife, Falkirk, Perth and Kinross. The new arrangements are due to run until 2015.

Partner and head of social housing Heather Pearson will lead a multi-disciplinary HBJ Gateley team comprising of social housing and regeneration, construction, corporate, charities, banking and finance and commercial litigation specialists.

Heather said: “KHA provides an essential service to local people and we are really pleased and excited to have been appointed to the panel for such a broad range of legal support. This result demonstrates the strength of our offering to the social housing and regeneration sector – both in terms of the core social housing specialist team and the wider capability and expertise of other practice areas across HBJ Gateley. As a firm, we are well placed to deliver a first-class service to meet all the needs of KHA moving forward, at a time when funding has been reduced and legislation is getting tighter. We are very much looking forward to working with KHA.”

In a double success, the firm has also announced that Heather Pearson, who led the KHA tender process, has been elected as vice-chair of the highly regarded Trust Housing Association, which is a not-for-profit charitable housing association providing housing and support services primarily for older people throughout Scotland.

“On a personal level, it is a fantastic honour to be appointed as vice-chair for Trust Housing Association. I have been involved with the association for the last 18 months and I am very much looking forward to working alongside my fellow board members and the senior management team to ensure we continue to deliver quality homes and services to promote independent living for older people.”