ABOUT
masonic housing ASSOCIATION

PREBENDAL CLOSE
Castle Street
Aylesbury
Bucks HP20 2RY

Our History

The Masonic Housing Association (MHA) was formed in 1975 as an exempt charity to take advantage of the financial provisions made available to Housing Associations under the Housing Act of 1974.

Our objective is to build and manage housing schemes for the elderly who can generally lead an independent existence but would benefit for having community services.

MHA currently has 189 flats spread across five Houses in various parts of the country.The first House opened was Prebendal Close in Buckinghamshire which opened its doors in 1980 followed by Hamilton Court in Essex in 1983. Palmer Court in Northants was opened in 1984 and further enlarged in the early 2000.
Reading Court in Warwickshire was built in the late 1980’s and opened in 1987 followed by Wilson Keyes Court in Staffordshire in 1994.

As a consequence of receiving Government grants some lettings must be offered to nominees of the Local Authority and therefore MHA cannot restrict occupancy solely to those with Masonic connections. However,offering such residence the MHA is visibly demonstrating that Masonry in the Community is very much part of its ethos.

Strong support for each House has and is given by the various Lodges and other Masonic Orders within each Province.Such support provides additional amenities and social activities for our residents.

Today,the MHA is a vibrant forward thinking organisation which fully fulfils its mission of providing quality rented accommodation of a high standard to elderly people.

Our MISSION STATEMENT

These are the principles we live by

OUR VISION

To ensure that our tenants, both now and in the future, live in safe, affordable, fit for purpose accommodation.

OUR MISSION

We are committed to providing affordable, quality sheltered housing to Freemasons, their family connections, and others in need that are over the age of 55, who are able to live independently.

President

Geoffrey Dearing
A solicitor with many years of experience, who was a litigator spending much of his time in Court as an advocate. Geoffrey went on to become Managing Partner of one of the larger Law firms in Kent and was Secretary of the Kent Law Society for a time and subsequently President.
In more recent times he has been on the Board of a number of Companies and Chairman of an AIM listed investment and financial services company. He has also written a text book and lectured extensively on legal issues in England and Wales.
For a number of years, Geoffrey was on the Board of a Kent based charity which helped disadvantaged youngsters. The Charity received the Queens Award for Charities. In his spare time he plays golf and in years gone by he played cricket and navigated rally cars in National championships.

Board of management

Chairman of the Board

Managing Director of the FS Expert Group, his professional career has been based in the City for the last 40 years where he has worked in the investment management sector and the regulation of it.  Oliver was for 13 years an elected member (Common Councilman) for Bread Street Ward in the City of London Corporation, sitting on many of the City Corporation’s committees, including Planning, Culture, Investment, Finance, Standards, Markets and Audits. 

He is also a member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers where he has sat on the Finance Committee and the Membership and General Purposes Committees, has chaired the trustees of the Company’s grant making charity and been a trustee of its 500th Anniversary Trust.

Deputy Chairman of the Board

Kai has recently returned from 5 years in Washington DC where he had a diplomatic role as the Executive  Director of the inter-governmental organisation for cotton and textiles.  He has led 2 international not for profit organisations and has previously been Vice Chair and Chair of a medium sized Housing Association in the North West.  He has extensive knowledge of Board/Committee work, particularly risk management, diversity and governance issues.  Kai is also the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Estonia for the Northwest of England based in Liverpool.

Chartered Health and Safety Consultant with an Electrical and Mechanical Engineering background. Ex Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspector of Health and Safety. Senior Management roles in manufaturing, consultancy and training. Past Trustee and Vice Chairman of NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health). Director of Masonic buildings for 12 years.

Chairman of Hamilton Court House Committee – A retired Health & Safety Manager with experience in all aspects of Health & Safety especially in construction. Through his experience as a contracts manager he brings skills in people management.

A Member of the Association’s Finance & General Purposes Committee.

A qualified Mechanical and Electrical Engineer who brings a full understanding of the many diverse types of buildings systems in use.  Experienced in the development of the design brief for both critical and non- critical systems, reviews of installed systems including power, lighting and fire alarms. 

He is able to assess the risk to critical areas of business operations including reviews of Planned Maintenance regimes to establish models based on effective operational and life cycle criteria incorporating the overall effect on the environmental, with a view to minimising these where possible. He has utilised his engineering skills to provide highly efficient strategies to manage energy consumption and has reduced the usage by over 35% on property portfolio’s managed.

Repeated success in implementing sales strategies, driving business growth, streamlining overall business processes, and increasing customer base. Excel at identifying customer requirements and offering robust solutions accordingly. Visionary thought leader committed to providing exceptional service to clients while ensuring profitability, growth, and long-term success of employer. Able to establish, lead, and motivate high-performing teams committed to achieving collective goals and shared vision. Expert in building professional relationships with clients and stakeholders. Thrive in challenging, deadline-driven environments. Skills / Training trategic Account Management | Incident Management | Complex Problem Solving |Critical Thinking | Security Solution Design | Salesforce | Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | Career Development Management | Project Management | Conflict Management | Account Retention Management | Performance Management | Personal Safety| Manual Handling | Mental First Aider | IOSH Managing Safety

Chairman of Prebendal Close House Committee.  Terry is a semi-retired Director running 2 small property companies, 1 industrial and 1 residential.  Terry has experience of running, buying and selling companies since 1973.

Chairman of Palmer Court House Committee – A Chartered Engineer and Director with over 30 years experience of running a building services company and providing advice on Legionella issues. Ian is also a Member of Water Management Society.

A consultant neurologist, clinical director for IT and managing trustee of a registered social landlord.  His areas of expertise include health and care systems, strategy, operations, risk management and information governance.

After studying management, Quentin became an accountant. As a Chartered Accountant he spent 25 years as a Partner at PwC London working in the Advisory business with a wide variety of clients. During this period, he was a Trustee of RMTGB for many years, relinquishing this to become Treasurer of the United Grand Lodge of England in 2004 (until 2021) and remains a member of the Board of General Purposes of UGLE.

Contact us

Property specific phone numbers can be found on our Contact Us page.

General Enquiries: 01428 652788

Managing Agents – Knox Cropper LLP

A Charitable Housing Association.

The Regulator of Social Housing Registration Number L0673
Registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefits Society Act 2014 - Number 21444R

National Housing Federation.

A Member of the National Housing Federation – Membership Number 1105

© Masonic Housing Association 2025