For the first time in more than 400 years, the Whitgift Foundation is to be led by a woman.
On a mission: Fiona Fletcher-Smith, appointed as chair of the Whitgift Foundation’s Court of Governors
“That’s if you don’t count Queen Elizabeth I,” confided a wag at the Whitgift Almshouses, where the charity and multi-million-pound property business has its offices.
The appointment of Fiona Fletcher Smith to the unpaid role as chair of Whitgift’s Court of Governors also signals potentially a significant shift in the Foundation’s outlook, after decades of being managed – perhaps mis-managed – by City bankers.
Fletcher Smith comes with huge experience in public sector housing, and is currently the chief executive at L&Q, one of Britain’s largest housing associations.
She replaces Christopher Houlding as the chair of a board that oversees the almshouses retirement homes, a couple of care homes and two large (mostly) boys’ independent schools, plus the biggest property portfolio in Croydon that includes the sadly neglected Whitgift Centre.
Houlding had been chair of the Foundation’s governing body since March 2015, and served as a governor for 24 years. Around two-thirds of the members of the Court of Governors are appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, reflecting the historic links back to 1596 when Archbishop John Whitgift founded the charity by building a hospital (the almshouses buildings on George Street) and school in Croydon, just up the hill from his palace.
Fletcher Smith’s appointment comes just three months after Roisha Hughes was hired as the Foundation’s chief executive.
Fletcher Smith began her working career, aged 19, as an office administrator at Dublin City Council, and she has risen to top jobs including as executive director for development, enterprise and environment at the Greater London Authority, where she was responsible for the delivery of the London Plan and overseeing the operation of the Mayor of London’s powers around “significant planning applications” in the capital.
Property tycoons: 16th Century charity has become a 21st Century property business
Fletcher Smith has said that what drew her into working in public housing was her time in Dublin, where she volunteered to help with homelessness groups. “To see the poverty in people’s lives and how that was affected by frankly the rubbish housing we were providing for people in the late 80s… spurred a desire to help people, to provide housing that will make it easier for people to live their best lives,” she said recently.
Westfield, the shopping mall developers, having kept Croydon and the Foundation waiting for more than 12 years with their promised £1.4billion regeneration of the town centre, are currently pondering plans to deliver as many as 3,000 homes across the site of the Whitgift Centre.
Fletcher Smith’s day job at L&Q, where she was appointed CEO in 2020, has her overseeing a £39billion property business.
Her CV shows a 30-year record of working in housing management, development and regeneration, strategy and policy development. Before being promoted into L&Q’s top job, she was director of development, leading on landmark projects such as the 10,800-home Barking Riverside development.
On display: at Whitgift School, they boast of their peacocks, flamingos and menagerie
Resident in Croydon – she’s been known to enjoy wine-tasting evenings at the La Spezia deli in South Croydon with her husband, who also works in local government in south London – Fletcher Smith is the chair of the Centre for London think tank and chairs the G15, a group of London’s largest housing associations.
This morning, the Foundation announced her appointment by saying, “Fiona brings a wealth of experience to the Foundation, particularly in terms of regeneration, working in regulated sectors and leading big organisations.”
On behalf of the Court of Governors, Asif Patel, who chaired the appointments committee, said: “We are delighted to have selected Fiona as our new chair. We look forward to working with her to continue to deliver on the vision of our founder.”
The latest financial annual report for the Foundation, issued last year, confirmed that it lost £11.4million of its funds in 2022-2023.
This follows a £19.9 million loss in the charity’s finances in 2022 – meaning that the Foundation’s unrestricted funds have fallen from £252million in 2017 to £197million in 2023, more than 20% in six years. In September 2023, the Foundation made the shock decision to close its 600-pupil girls’ independent school, Old Palace.
Including teaching staff and care staff at its homes, the Whitgift Foundation employs around 850 people, with annual spend of £83million.
Read more: Crumbling finances see troubled Foundation lose millions more
Read more: Foundation abandoned new school plan after taking £70m loan
Read more: Old Palace closure brought on by shaky Foundation finances
Read more: Falling rolls and rising fees: how Old Palace got squeezed
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our near 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, which is featured on Google News Showcase and followed by 16,000 on Twitter/X, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
- Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
L&Q have long abandoned being foremost a housing management organisation and are far more a profit making property development business. So the fit with the needs of the Whitgift Foundation to raise cash from it’s property portfolio seems paramount here. Just a warning though for those who will be holding property contracts with the Whitgift. L&Q out of all Housing Associations I know are known for their cost driven standards of housing management and the my way or the highway approach to their tenants and adopted this attitude decades ago. That is they like reducing their responsibilities and loading costs onto their unfortunate customers. Most Housing Associations have now followed this route sadly. Good luck.
Who could forget the ‘Virgin Queen’? But I challenge IC to back up the quote from the, ahem, Whitgift Mole. I smell a Talpa europaea!
Am saddened and shocked that you should ask.
We never reveal our sources (apart from when we have been victim of an illegal hack…).
Aren’t ALL hacks illegal? I mean the actions, rather than the scribes
So what your saying is Fiona Fletcher-Smith is not a crook, not an incompetent, not a reject from some other London borough. I had to read the article again in case you were talking about Croydon in S Australia.
We have offered no commentary at all, Haydn. We would point out, though, that chair of governors is an unpaid position and is not directly connected to the council. She does appear to have extensive experience relevant to dealing with Westfield, though.
And we would highlight that if she is in the habit of initialling documents, she could be open to misinterpretation: FFS.
Which was almost our reply to you.