Our Board
The Board at A Better Choice for Property use their considerable knowledge and experience to set the company’s strategic path, oversee its performance and ensure priorities are delivered while complying with relevant legal standards.
Tracey Kerly
Tracey Kerly has been Chief Executive of Ashford Borough Council since 2016. Prior to that she was Head of Housing at the Kent authority. She has worked in housing since 1981, starting her career as a Housing Management Trainee in the London Borough of Bromley.
She joined Ashford Borough Council in 1988 and has always been keen to work in innovative ways and to take on new challenges. Tracey has been proactive in the delivery of new homes through PFI, overseeing the Stanhope regeneration, working with housing association partners, using the HRA buy out, and more recently through ABC Lettings and ABC Property.
She continuously encourages her staff to push the status quo and come up with innovative solutions to traditional housing problems.
Brian Horton
Brian has over 30 years of professional experience in the housing and development sector and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He is the Director at Horton Strategic, a housing, development and regeneration consultancy working independently and collaboratively to provide specialist strategic advice to clients in the public, private and third sector.
Brian is the Chair of the Margate Town Deal Board and is a Board Member at Gravesend Churches Housing Association and a Co-opted Member of Kent Housing Group Executive Board. Prior to setting up Horton Strategic, Brian worked as Strategic Housing Advisor to Kent County Council, Chief Executive of Swale Housing Association and as Executive Director Kent for AmicusHorizon (now Optivo).
He previously held positions at Thanet District Council, English Churches Housing Group (now Riverside), the Corporation of London and Wandsworth Borough Council.
Maria Stevens
Maria Stevens is a qualified accountant and has worked in local government finance since 2000, most recently as the Head of Finance & IT at Ashford Borough Council, where she manages the finance functions, Revenues and Benefits and IT. Maria was born and raised in Ashford and still lives in the borough today.
Maria joined the board of ABC Property in 2016 and is passionate about delivering a first class private rented sector offer in the Ashford area. Maria has been involved in a number of projects including major housing developments, Chilmington Management Organisation, leisure contracts and the acquisition of key sites in the borough.
