'I wanted the opportunity to take hard business skills into an environment where rewards went beyond the bottom line'.

These are the words of Amanda Davies (pictured), the high-powered chief executive of Gwent's newly-formed social housing conglomerate Seren (that's Welsh for star).

Ms Davies spotted the job opportunity in a Sunday broadsheet having spent the last decade helping to launch and run Parkside Housing Group in Windsor.

Social housing may sound a bit fluffy but the financial numbers which underpin it are anything but.

"At Parkside we went to the market and borrowed £73million. "Thirty-two million was spent on the housing stock transfer from the council and within five years we had spent £40 million on refurbishment."

Seren was launched on July 1 as an umbrella organisation for Newport housing associations - Charter Housing, Fairlake, Reach and Solas (the latter being the new name for NASH - Newport Action for the Single Homeless).

By Gwent standards it's a giant organisation employing 450 people, owning several thousand properties and turning over around £22.5m per annum.

The social housing sector obviously believes there's strength in numbers and - in Ms Davies opinion - economy too.

"By having a parent company like Seren you only need one chief executive, one finance director, one IT director and so on."

But to make sure the impact of the constituent organisations is not diluted in any way, voluntary advisory boards are being recruited for each.

"We're looking for people who care about their communities and who can contribute business or professional skills."

Ms Davies' skills have been honed by a broad-ranging career which began in the private sector and migrated into the public one.

She is proud to declare that she was raised in social housing in Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley.

A business studies degree at Cardiff University was followed by an MBA and a career in accountancy in the manufacturing and transport sectors. Then came the switch to Parkside in Windsor.

Seeing the advert for Seren prompted something of a lifestyle reassessment.

"Professionally, I was attracted by the chance to lead an organisation whose companies had already achieved a national reputation for innovation and pioneering work.

"Personally, I was approaching 40 and I though this is the right moment to move myself and my family (she has a five-year-old daughter, Tirion,) back home to Wales."

The removal wagon will be turning up later this week at a property in the Vale of Glamorgan.

"My parents are still in the Swansea area and being a working mum I need their help with childcare, so I looked for a place halfway between them and work." That work will entail overseeing a huge range of community-building activities within Gwent's five counties. Reach, for example, supports adults with learning difficulties and mental health problems to live independently. This ranges from 24-hour care to a couple of hours a week assisting with key skills."

The association, which has a staff of 250 and a turnover of about £7m, has a number of group homes with teams of staff to help care for people. It also offers outreach services for "supported living" where staff visit people in their own homes and help them measure up to the marks of independent life.

"Social isolation is a big issue and Reach had got a number of exciting projects on the go to help people overcome it.

"Maindee Festival was a big opportunity for us and was enjoyed by our customers. We're working on more opportunities like that."

Solas, formerly Newport Action for the Single Homeless, is a high-profile association led by Richard Frame, who recently received an MBE for his services to the sector.

In addition to providing drop-in or referral hostels for homeless people it has been brainstorming ideas for getting people into jobs.

"We've got a recording studio in Pill to help people acquire technical or performing skills. We're going to release a Christmas CD on which all the songs have been written, performed and recorded by young people at the studio."

Cooking is said to be the new rock 'n' roll and Solas has been successful in drawing people into it and into top jobs with many Cardiff hotels.

But big challenges remain, especially as many of Solas' customers are fighting drug and alcohol dependancies.

"You need to take a joined-up approach. For example, we work with Kaleidoscope to arrange (heroin substitute) methadone prescriptions, because if our customers have to steal to support drug habits they're not attending our courses."

Charter Housing has an estate of over 4,000 properties in Gwent, all used to provide homes at "affordable rents".

"Many of these properties are coming up for refurbishment and our challenge is to maintain the standards we've established."

Charter's role is to help people find "lifetime homes". "We can also help older people to find alternative accommodation which is more suitable for their needs and at the same time releases family homes for younger occupiers."

Ms Davies said they have to look beyond bricks and mortar because "there is obviously far more to a successful community than that".

"It's a partnership thing again: looking at what a community needs to make it a success. One of our projects is called Dreamscheme where children are encouraged into activities like gardening, painting, clearing rubbish or entertaining the housebound.

"In return for their work, points are earned and when these accrue the children can go on a trip somewhere."

Seren runs a ground-breaking scheme called Volunteer to Professional which trains residents to become professional community workers. It's backed by Lloyds TSB and the Assembly and runs in partnership with three other housing associations.

Fairlake is Seren's specialist property development company.

As well as 300 properties, which it offers on a shared-equity basis to help low-earners get on the property ladder, its skills have been in demand to help Newport Housing Trust with the replacement of the city's famous pre-fabs.

Almost 650 post-war, pre-fabricated homes are being replaced free-of-charge by 530 new, 2-bedroom bungalows. Around 275 have been completed in a £40m programme.

The bungalows are being built to the latest energy efficiency and personal security standards.

But that hasn't pleased all the fanatically loyal residents of the pre-fabs whose average age is 78.

Fairlake director Darrell Bolton said: "The residents loved them and loved the communities they were living in.

"Naturally the idea of dramatic change at an advanced life stage was viewed by some with apprehension but this project has been characterised by extensive consultation."

"Almost everyone is now onboard."