Early Career and Background

Hayes’s background is rooted in journalism and nonprofit communications. He earned a first-class degree in Modern History at the University of Bristol, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Newspaper Studies from Cardiff University​ - theorg.com. He began his career as a news editor at Bullivant Media, a regional newspaper group, where he worked from 2008 to 2012 - ​theorg.com. This early experience in journalism honed his storytelling and media skills.

Transitioning into public relations and communications, Hayes took on roles in the charity and housing sectors throughout the 2010s. He served as a communications associate at the Arrhythmia Alliance (a health nonprofit) and as a senior account manager at the PR agency Creative Bridge - ​theorg.com. By 2015 he entered the UK housing arena, becoming PR and Communications Lead at Housing & Care 21, a housing association for older people​ - theorg.com. He later joined the Chartered Institute of Housing as a Communications Manager (2016–2018) and then moved to Citizen (one of the West Midlands’ largest housing associations) where he rose from Head of Communications to Director of Communications - ​theorg.com.

Outside of his day jobs, Hayes has also been active in communication circles. He has been a conference speaker and even a board member of a communications agency, reflecting his standing in the industry - ​linkedin.com. This broader engagement underscores that by the time GreenSquareAccord hired him in April 2022, Hayes was a seasoned communications strategist with a diverse background in media, charity, and housing sectors​ - theorg.com.

Communications Leadership at GreenSquareAccord

Joining GreenSquareAccord and Mandate

GreenSquareAccord (GSA) was formed in 2021 from a merger of two housing providers, and by 2022 it faced significant service challenges – from property maintenance backlogs to low tenant satisfaction – alongside a need to unify its brand. Hayes was brought on as Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications in April 2022, a new role aimed at sharpening the merged organisation’s communications and public profile​ - theorg.com. His remit encompassed external communications (media relations, social media, public affairs) as well as internal communications and brand management.

From the outset, Hayes’s mandate appeared focused on improving GSA’s image and narrative. Observers noted that his appointment was essentially to manage the organisation’s reputation. A residents’ advocacy blog cynically remarked that Hayes was hired to “spearhead the campaign to renew and revamp [GreenSquareAccord’s] public image” - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk – in other words, to project a positive image of GSA at a time when many residents were dissatisfied with core services. The same source stressed that this was “not a personal attack” on Hayes, but questioned the value of a high-level communications role when repairs and customer service were suffering, suggesting that GSA was prioritising PR over fixing operational issues - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. This criticism set the tone for the mixed reception to Hayes’s efforts that would follow.

Communication Strategy and Initiatives

Under Hayes’s leadership, GreenSquareAccord implemented a number of communications initiatives aimed at transparency, brand consistency, and engagement:

• Revamped Annual Reports: Hayes oversaw a redesign of GSA’s annual performance report to make it supposedly more accessible and engaging for residents. The 2022–23 annual report was released as an interactive online “flipbook” and, for the first time. The report had a “design” that supposedly aligned with an evolving GSA visual identity, and it was supposedly co-created with input from the Customer Panel (a group supposedly of resident representatives) to supposedly ensure resident concerns shaped the content - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. “Members of our Customer Panel have been instrumental in helping to shape the report,” Hayes noted of the 2023 edition​ - greensquareaccord.co.uk. The following year, he built on this approach: the 2024 report included video interviews with customers to supposedly “bring the impact of the work we do to life in a new and engaging way”, reflecting Hayes’s push to humanise GSA’s accomplishments​. He stated that “we want to be open with our customers about our performance, our services and how we plan to improve, and this report plays a crucial role in enabling us to achieve that”​greensquareaccord.co.uk, although has thus far failed to being this to life. These moves supposedly indicated to an emphasis on transparency and modernised communication, at least in form and intent.

• Brand and Promotional Campaigns: Hayes also spearheaded efforts to polish GSA’s brand image and public messaging beyond mandatory reports. GSA’s communications began heavily showcasing positive “success stories” and community impact narratives, often shared via polished videos, press releases, and social media posts. For example, in late 2022 the association released a “glitzy new video” promoting the “GSA way,” portraying the organisation in a glowing light​- greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. (Notably, this video was funded by GSA – effectively by residents’ rent – and did not feature actual residents, which drew ire from critics who felt it was a one-sided, curated narrative - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk.) Hayes’s team consistently pushed carefully crafted messages highlighting improvements or noble initiatives. As one commentator wryly put it, GSA under Hayes continuously “keep pushing their own carefully curated narrative” aimed at “pump[ing] up the voice of the customer” in public forums - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, even as discontent simmered beneath the surface.

• Internal Communications and Staff Engagement: Alongside outward-facing PR, Hayes devoted considerable effort to internal communications within GreenSquareAccord. He led the creation and rollout of a new business plan branded “Simpler, Stronger, Better,” ensuring that employees understood and embraced the organisation’s post-merger strategy - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. In 2024, these efforts earned GreenSquareAccord national recognition: the company won two ICE Awards (supposedly prestigious internal communications awards) – Gold for “Best Communication of Change or Business Transformation” and Gold for “Best Internal Communications in the Not-for-Profit Sector” - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. The awards jury supposedly praised GSA’s internal campaign as “a compelling, thorough and creative approach to connect employees with GSA’s goals – a campaign rooted in insight and creativity”. Hayes celebrated the wins, noting that improving communication with staff had been “a major focus over the last two years” and was supposedly a critical to achieving the organisation’s objectives​ - greensquareaccord.co.uk. He pointed to measurable impacts, citing an internal survey in which scores for staff feeling supposedly informed about important issues rose to 75% (up from ~70%), and perception of leadership vision clarity rose similarly to 72%- ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. These figures suggest that Hayes’s strategies supposedly had a positive impact on stakeholder engagement – at least among employees – and that he supposedly successfully rallied internal support for change.

In summary, Hayes’s communications strategy at GreenSquareAccord combined glossy, proactive PR (new branding, upbeat storytelling, social media content) with initiatives aimed at greater transparency (detailed annual reporting with resident input) and stakeholder engagement (both residents via panels, and employees via internal campaigns). He positioned himself and GSA as supposedly forward-thinking communicators, at times even taking bold steps like deciding to withdraw from a major social media platform for principled reasons. However, as discussed next, these moves often attracted skepticism and controversy from the very audiences he aimed to serve.

Resident Engagement and Public Criticism

Despite GreenSquareAccord’s polished communications under Hayes, many residents and external observers have been openly critical of his approach. Detractors argue that the communications strategy under Hayes has favored “spin” and message control at the expense of genuine dialogue with those living in GSA’s homes​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Several key flashpoints illustrate this tension:

• Social Media Presence – Curtailed: One of Hayes’s most controversial decisions was to shut down GreenSquareAccord’s Twitter account (Twitter was rebranded as “X” in 2023). In April 2024, Hayes announced that GSA would leave the platform, citing serious concerns about the environment on Twitter and declining value to the organisation. Writing on LinkedIn, he explained that remaining on a platform increasingly rife with “unfiltered inappropriate content…including hate speech” no longer aligned with GSA’s values - ​insidehousing.co.uk. Furthermore, he noted a “prolonged and continued decline in engagement” on the channel over the prior 6–12 months, including a net loss of followers, which led him to conclude that “the resource involved in managing the channel was not justified by the engagement we were receiving” - ​insidehousing.co.uk. As a not-for-profit, Hayes argued, staff time could be better spent elsewhere - ​insidehousing.co.uk. Indeed, he emphasised that residents rarely contacted GSA via Twitter and that queries were easier to handle through other channels - ​insidehousing.co.uk. This rationale received support from some industry peers – Hayes’s post about the decision garnered “a string of supportive comments from others in the [housing] sector” who perhaps saw it as a brave stance on digital strategy - ​insidehousing.co.uk.

  However, the move was met with sharp criticism from residents and transparency advocates. To them, shutting down a public social media channel looked like an attempt to stifle complaints in a visible forum. A resident-run website accused GreenSquareAccord of “silencing customer voices” by closing the Twitter account, calling it “yet another example” of the association avoiding uncomfortable feedback - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Rather than address persistent maintenance and safety issues being raised by tenants on social media, GSA “resort[ed] to silencing dissenting voices to safeguard its reputation,” the blog argued​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. In the eyes of these critics, Hayes – “the voice of GreenSquareAccord” – was prioritising controlling the narrative over engaging in meaningful dialogue with unhappy residents - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. They pointed out that GSA’s official Twitter posts had little genuine engagement (often just corporate platitudes met with silence), whereas the platform contained many complaints from residents tagging GSA about unresolved problems ​- greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Instead of using that feedback constructively, GSA under Hayes had blocked many residents on Twitter and restricted who could reply to its tweets, effectively muzzling public criticism even before the account’s closure - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. This context fueled skepticism about Hayes’s justification; as one commentator dryly observed, GSA’s lack of Twitter engagement was partly self-inflicted – “they blocked and restricted comments from people [GSA] did not actively follow, making engagement…almost impossible” - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. In sum, while leaving Twitter might have been defensible on principle, it reinforced a perception of opacity, especially given GreenSquareAccord’s broader pattern of tightly controlling communication channels.

• Blocking and Limited Dialogue: Further evidence of strained resident relations was Hayes’s personal approach to critical voices online. Shortly after taking his post, Hayes (and other GSA leaders) apparently blocked at least one prominent resident activist on multiple platforms​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Ben Jenkins, a GreenSquareAccord tenant who had been publicly documenting problems, wrote that “the new Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Steve Hayes, has blocked me on Twitter and now LinkedIn”​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Jenkins interpreted this as a move to “not legitimise” a critical voice and to maintain plausible deniability about issues: “they don’t want someone sharing their failures online, and worse – they want to be able to claim they didn’t know [about problems]”​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. While one could argue that social media blocking from a personal account is trivial, in context it signaled an unwillingness to engage directly with dissatisfied residents. This feeds into a narrative that, under Hayes, GSA’s notion of “engagement” is one-way. Indeed, the organisation’s official Facebook and LinkedIn pages have had comments disabled on many posts - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, limiting public interaction to passive reading of GSA’s updates. Hayes often encourages residents to use private channels (like phone or direct messages) for individual issues – which is standard customer service practice – but critics say this also serves to remove complaints from the public eye and avoid accountability. The disconnect between GSA’s polished communications and residents’ lived reality (such as unrepaired homes or unanswered calls) has been a recurring theme in public comments. “The image [GSA] is flogging is so far removed from the experience residents endure,” the GreenSquareAccord Residents blog charged, calling the transparency efforts “a bit of a charade” - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. In other words, no amount of attractive reports or videos can substitute for authentic engagement, and Hayes has struggled to convince the most affected stakeholders – the tenants – that the communications serve their interests.

Controversial Decisions and Public Fallout

Several incidents during Hayes’s tenure have escalated criticism and drawn media attention, raising questions about GreenSquareAccord’s handling of dissent under his communications leadership:

• Legal Action Against a Resident Website: The most dramatic controversy has been GreenSquareAccord’s confrontation with Ben Jenkins, the resident who ran an independent “GSA Residents” website and social media pages highlighting tenant grievances. Rather than treat Jenkins as an engaged critic, the organisation – led by its corporate affairs department – took an aggressive legal approach. In late 2023, GreenSquareAccord attempted to sued Jenkins, accusing him of infringing on its brand and disrupting its communications with customers​ - theguardian.com. GSA complained that Jenkins was encouraging other tenants to report issues to his website instead of directly to the landlord, allegedly causing confusion and delays in addressing problems​ - greensquareaccord.co.uk. Hayes’s team reported instances of tenants mistakenly thinking Jenkins’s site was an official channel, and they portrayed his prolific contacting of GSA staff (hundreds of emails, calls, and even messages to some employees’ personal numbers) as harassment that “had a significant and detrimental impact” on staff wellbeing and resources​ - greensquareaccord.co.uk​, greensquareaccord.co.uk. In November 2023, just before a scheduled court hearing, Mr Jenkins offered a undertakings: he agreed to cease contacting the company or its employees altogether, and not present himself as an intermediary for other residents - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. GreenSquareAccord publicly cast this as a “successful court outcome” that would “help make sure customers can contact us and get their enquiries dealt with more effectively” - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk. In an official news release, the organisation argued that Jenkins’s activities were supposedly hurting residents by diverting their complaints away from proper channels, thereby slowing down fixes - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk.

  This legal victory, however, came at significant reputational cost. Housing rights advocates and some politicians viewed it as a blatant attempt to silence a whistleblower. The case was cited in Parliament as a possible SLAPP lawsuit – an oppressive tactic by which powerful entities use legal action to shut down criticism​- - theguardian.com​, theguardian.com. GreenSquareAccord’s lawyers had piled on accusations (from harassment to copyright infringement) to pressure Jenkins, who capitulated to avoid crippling legal costs - ​theguardian.com. A Green MP, Siân Berry, told Parliament it was “very much in the public interest for Ben to be speaking out” about GSA’s poor housing conditions, implying that the company’s response was heavy-handed - ​theguardian.com. Even after the injunction, the conflict continued: in August 2024, Jenkins was arrested at his home in the early hours on allegations that he had harassed Mr Hayes and could be violent and dangerous, although no evidence could be provided – an escalation which Jenkins and his supporters viewed as intimidation - ​shaction.org. The Social Housing Action Campaign condemned that development, accusing Steve Hayes specifically of having “launched a personal attack on Ben” by involving the police, and questioning whether he did so with the approval of GSA’s leadership - ​shaction.org​shaction.org. They called on GreenSquareAccord’s board to “end the persecution of Ben” which was “damaging their reputation and galvanising opposition” among residents - ​shaction.org. In the court of public opinion, this saga painted GSA’s communications leadership as combative and punitive toward critics. Hayes’s name became associated with an attempt to gag a tenant – a move widely seen as antithetical to openness and accountability in the social housing sector.

• Transparency and Trust Concerns: More broadly, GreenSquareAccord has been battling a trust deficit with residents during Hayes’s tenure, which some attribute partly to its communications approach. In 2023, the UK Housing Ombudsman found multiple severe failings (“severe maladministration”) in GSA’s handling of tenant issues - ​shaction.org. The association’s own Tenant Satisfaction Measures that year were abysmal – only about 50% of tenants were satisfied with the landlord’s overall service, and a mere 36% felt that tenant views were listened to and acted upon - ​shaction.org. Perhaps most striking, less than 20% were satisfied with how GSA handled complaints - ​shaction.org. These figures indicate an “appalling” level of customer trust​ - shaction.org. In this context, Hayes’s emphasis on positive storytelling and reputation management has been viewed by some as tone-deaf. The Social Housing Action Campaign argued that GSA responded to its mounting criticism and poor performance not with humility and fixes, but by “focus[ing] their efforts on propaganda [and] quashing challenge” - ​shaction.org. In their view, the communications strategy became about “telling the world what a wonderful landlord [GSA] were” and not tolerating anyone “allowed to suggest otherwise” - ​shaction.org. Such pointed criticism suggests that, despite Hayes’s efforts to improve transparency (like the new reports) and engagement, many residents feel the communication is one-sided – a flood of self-congratulatory news that doesn’t acknowledge or address their realities. This gap between the official narrative and customer experience is a central critique of Hayes’s leadership in communications.

It must be noted that Hayes himself might argue that tough decisions (like leaving a toxic social media platform or taking legal measures to ensure queries go through official channels) were made in good faith to protect the organisation and its customers. Indeed, some outcomes of his strategy have been positive, as seen with internal engagement and clearer information being made available through reports. However, the public controversies outlined above have undeniably impacted GreenSquareAccord’s reputation. They highlight the fine line communications leaders walk in the social housing sector – balancing brand image with authentic stakeholder engagement. Hayes’s tenure so far can be seen as a case study in the risks of aggressive communications tactics: they can win awards and control narratives, but if not coupled with genuine relationship-building, they may erode trust among the very people an organisation serves.

Voice Artist Career and Its Intersection with Communications

In addition to his role at GreenSquareAccord, Steve Hayes has a notable side career as a supposed professional voice artist. According to his own voiceover business website, he has supposedly “represented some of the biggest brands in the world” with voice work ranging from corporate narration and e-learning videos to video game characters and celebrity impressions - ​stevoiceover.co.uk, ​stevoiceover.co.uk. Hayes describes himself as a “versatile, professional, affordable” British voice artist with over a decade of performing experience​ - stevoiceover.co.uk. He even boasts an ability to mimic famous voices – from Boris Johnson and Sir David Attenborough to Donald Trump and Morgan Freeman – for use in advertisements or entertainment - ​stevoiceover.co.uk. This creative flair is a somewhat unusual complement to his communications executive persona.

Hayes operates under the brand “STEVO” for his voiceover services, and he maintains a professional home studio for recording audio projects - ​stevoiceover.co.uk. Notably, he supposedly balances this enterprise alongside his full-time communications job. “I combine my work as a voiceover with my role as Director of Communications for a large customer service organisation,” Hayes writes, adding that this dual experience supposedly gives him “a unique insight into creative projects” and how to deliver on a client’s brief - ​stevoiceover.co.uk. In other words, he sees his two careers as complementary: his day job supposedly informs his understanding of client communications needs, while his voice talent supposedly adds a creative edge to his communications work.

Indeed, there have been instances where Hayes’s voiceover and GSA worlds intersected. GreenSquareAccord has produced in-house promotional videos and phone system messages, and Hayes has reportedly lent his own voice to some of these materials​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk. Rather than hiring an external actor, GSA could tap its Communications Director’s polished baritone to narrate its corporate videos or telephone hold messages – an efficient (if unorthodox) use of his skill set. While some critics have poked fun at this arrangement (suggesting it exemplifies GSA’s focus on appearance – “Honestly I’m not making it up,” one resident wrote about Hayes doing voiceovers for his employer - ​greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk), it does highlight Hayes’s personal investment in the company’s communications outputs. He is, quite literally, the voice of GreenSquareAccord in more ways than one.

Conclusion

Steve Hayes’s career thus far illustrates the multi-faceted role of a modern communications leader – especially in a challenging public service environment like social housing. On one hand, he has driven innovations in communication at GreenSquareAccord: introducing slick digital reports supposedly co-designed with residents, fostering better internal communication (to the point of winning awards), and curating a consistent brand message across platforms. His background in journalism and PR, combined with a flair for creative expression (even voice acting), has enabled him to craft narratives that supposedly highlight progress and positivity within the organisation. These efforts have been acknowledged by industry peers and have likely improved engagement among certain stakeholder groups (such as GSA’s staff and regulators) - ​greensquareaccord.co.uk.

On the other hand, Hayes’s tenure has been dogged by controversy stemming from what critics perceive as a defensive and top-down communication style. Residents have publicly accused him of filtering or blocking out negative feedback and failing to truly listen to the people living in GreenSquareAccord homes​ - greensquareaccordresidents.co.uk, ​shaction.org. The decision to abandon Twitter and the legal campaign against a vocal tenant activist stand out as incidents that, in the eyes of detractors, undermined GSA’s claims of transparency. These episodes suggest that while Hayes succeeded in controlling the narrative, it sometimes came at the cost of goodwill on the ground. In a sector where trust and accountability are paramount, such criticism is damning.

It would be unfair to pin all of GreenSquareAccord’s communication challenges on Hayes alone – many stem from the organisation’s underlying service issues. In a journalistic assessment, however, his leadership in communications can be seen as a double-edged sword: effective in messaging and mobilising support, yet polarising among the community it ultimately serves. Going forward, a key test for Hayes will be whether he can bridge the gap between public relations and public reality – finding ways to engage with dissatisfied residents and rebuild trust, without merely spinning the message. As of 2025, Hayes continues to hold his post at GreenSquareAccord, and presumably remains committed to its mission.