Boss of leading homes provider in Huntingdon resigns

Dr Chan Abraham has stepped down as chief executive of the Huntingdon-based Luminus Group, which operates 7,500 homes across the region and serves 45,000 people.

His resignation was confirmed by the chairman of the Luminus Group board, Mike Forrest.

He said: “Dr Chan Abraham resigned his position and left the company on 28 June 2017.

“The board is grateful for the many years of service Dr Abraham has given to Luminus.”

He said an announcement about an interim chief executive will be made shortly.

A statement on the Luminus Group’s website said one of the first tasks for the interim chief executive will be to address matters generated by the government’s Homes and Communities Agency’s Regulatory report.

A regulatory judgement published by the agency in March this year downgraded Luminus Group from G1, meaning it was compliant, to G3, non-compliant with intensive regulatory engagement.

An accompanying report from the agency stated that following an internal audit in June last year, Luminus identified that 25 per cent of a small sample of properties did not have valid gas safety certificates.

It added: “Following a further full assessment, it was identified that more than 1,000 properties had not had a valid gas safety certificate for at least some part of the previous two years.

“Most of the certificates had been overdue for a short period.

“Inadequate policies and systems had caused failure to schedule and book inspections in a timely manner, and then problems gaining access to properties.”

The social housing regulator concluded Luminus had failed to meet the Home standard to ‘meet all applicable statutory requirements that provide for the health and safety of occupants in their homes’ and that as a consequence of this beach, there was the potential for serious detriment to Luminus’s tenants.

The report also stated Luminus had provided assurance that it had completed the outstanding gas safety checks and was developing and adopting a new gas safety policy.

North West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara said: “Given all that has happened in the recent past at Luminus this seems the right time for fresh leadership and a new direction for the group.

“Luminus plays a very important part on our community and its actions affect many local people.

“I wish Chan Abraham well for the future and I look forward to working with the new chief executive when one is appointed.”