With more than twenty-six years of experience in housing across seven London Councils, Hakeem is currently Director of Housing at the London Borough of Brent – one of the UK’s most diverse areas and now London Borough of Culture 2020.
Hakeem has overseen Brent’s ALMO being brought back in-house and has since embarked on transforming how housing services are delivered in the multicultural borough, which is home to Wembley Stadium.
As well as being responsible for maximising the delivery of affordable housing in the borough – delivering 6,000 new homes in the next five years – Hakeem is responsible for other services such as Homelessness and Allocations and Private Sector Housing services, which includes landlord licensing, property standards enforcement, empty property grants and adaptations – and the management of the Council’s own housing stock of around 12,500 homes.
Passionate about social housing, gaining insight to people’s needs and exploring innovative ways to deliver services, Hakeem has a Master’s degree in Housing and an MPA from the University of Birmingham. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.