Anita joined Freebridge in August 2020 from Havebury Housing in Bury St Edmunds, where she was Director of Operations and Deputy CEO since 2012.

Sophie brings over two decades of experience within the housing sector, having been part of the organisation since its establishment in 2006, and prior to that in Local Government. Over that time, she has held a wide range of roles spanning frontline service delivery through to senior leadership, giving her a deep, practical understanding of both customer needs and operational excellence.

She has been a member of the executive team for the past seven years, playing a key role in shaping the organisation’s strategic direction and service delivery.

Sophie’s background is rooted in housing management, customer experience and engagement. In her current role, she leads all customer-facing services, overseeing the full end-to-end customer journey - from allocations and tenancy management through to repairs and maintenance, asset investment, compliance, and the organisation’s net zero ambitions.

She is passionate about delivering high-quality, responsive services that put customers at the heart of everything the organisation does.

Consumer Standards Lead

Sophie is responsible for overseeing the delivery of all landlord services and so is responsible for ensuring overall compliance with the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards on GOV.UK. If you have any questions or concerns about compliance with the consumer standards, please contact Sophie via [email protected]

Matthew's previous roles include; Capital One Bank, Head of Finance and Business Planning for the National Construction College, and for the last 10 years he has worked in further education as Vice Principal at Huntingdonshire Regional College and Director of Finance & MIS at Walsall College.

Malcolm joined in April 2026 and has responsibility for, Health & Safety, People and Communications.

Malcolm is a seasoned executive with more 20 years’ experience in the sector at Executive and Board level. Malcolm has a real passion for creating an organisational culture and operating environment where people can feel they belong and have the tools and support to deliver great things.

James is the Head of Safety and has a remit which covers fire safety, health, and safety corporately and for the tenants/customers and wider emergency events and planning.

As part of this role James is the nominated lead for Health and Safety as detailed in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. 

James, as detailed in this act, is the nominated Freebridge colleague responsible for:

• monitoring Freebridge’s compliance with health and safety requirements

• assessing risks of failure to comply with health and safety requirements

• notifying the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) of any risk of failing to meet any health and safety and safety requirements, and any material failings by Freebridge to comply with health and safety requirements

• provide advice on addressing risks and failures to Freebridge allowing compliance with health and safety requirements

Health and Safety requirements covers a range of issues but under this act we are defining the homes, the customers and colleagues and the compliance with both health and safety requirements in a safe and decent home and the compliance checks and safety checks that assure this.