IAN Hughes, who has been group chief executive of Rooftop Housing for 22 years, is to retire in the New Year.

He will be succeeded by Boris Worrall, who is currently an executive director at Orbit, which looks after 35,000 homes across the UK, and is also a board member of the Housing Action Charitable Trust and vice-chairman of the National Housing Federation Midlands committee.

Nicola Inchbald, chairman of the Rooftop Housing Group Board, said "We're very excited to have Boris joining Rooftop, but we'll also miss Ian Hughes when he retires and want to thank him for leaving Rooftop in such great shape. It's a challenging time for any housing organisation and with Boris's vision we know that we'll be able to keep making a difference to the lives of our 15,000 residents and the communities in which they live."

Mr Worrall added: "I am absolutely thrilled to be taking up this role at an organisation delivering many new homes and making such a difference to local people and communities. I am also excited about Rooftop's wider work in areas such as sustainability, older people and the traveller community. It's a fantastic organisation and I look forward to working with the dedicated staff team, board, customers and local partners in the near future." He will be in post in February 2017.