Sir Edward Lister

Chairman
Homes & Communities Agency

Sir Edward Lister joined the Homes and Communities Agency as Chairman in June 2016. Sir Edward has considerable experience of the housebuilding industry, in particular infrastructure investment and large-scale developments. From 2011-16, he was London’s Deputy Mayor of Policy and Planning and Chief of Staff at the Greater London Authority, which included serving as Deputy Chairman of the Old Oak & Park Royal Mayoral Development Corporation. He was previously Conservative Leader of Wandsworth Borough Council from 1992-2011. As the longest-serving council leader in the country, Sir Edward made Wandsworth the most successful value-for-money local authority in the country with the lowest council tax charge and top satisfaction ratings from its residents.

In 2016, Sir Edward was appointed as Senior Advisor to the Regeneration and Investment Organisation within UKTI. He is also a consultant for CBRE’s One London team and a Non-Executive Director of Stanhope Ltd. 

Simon Gilbert

Development Director
Barratt Homes Bristol

Simon joined Barratt Group in 2007 and brings over 15 years’ experience in the South West Land Market. Involved with all major land acquisitions within the Division, he is also experienced in housing, negotiating S106 and windfall sites with Local Authorities and RSL’s.  Simon also sits on numerous Developer and Local Authority forums.

Dan Batterton

Head of Residential
Legal & General Investment Management

Dan Batterton is Head of Residential at LGIM Real Assets. Launching the Build to Rent strategy in 2016 the portfolio has grown to over £3.0bn and just under 10,000 apartments in development or in operation spread across the UK. The portfolio is expected to grow to £5bn within 3 years. Dan has over 20 years’ experience in the property sector and his exceptional understanding of portfolio strategy have been utilised to design L&G’s long-term acquisition, development, sustainability and operational strategy for the Residential sector. He leads the specialist BTR team at L&G that is delivering 1,500 new BTR homes per year. Under Dan’s stewardship L&G are the UK Residential market leaders within the GRESB sustainability benchmark and have committed to be Net Zero Carbon enabled by 2030. Joining Legal & General in February 2007 as Business Development Manager, Dan’s responsibility was to create new fund ideas and identify investment strategy opportunities.

Cllr Paul Smith

Cabinet Member for Homes and Communities
Bristol City Council

Paul Smith is the Cabinet member for Homes and Communities for Bristol City Council. Paul was re-elected to the council in May 2016 following a 17 year break. Paul has worked in the housing association sector for almost 30 years and has also been the Chief Executive of two national charities. Paul’s housing experience has included working at director level within a midlands based housing association, more recently as Head of Intelligence and Insight for Aster Group which manages 28,000 homes across the south of England and two spells with the National Housing Federation.

Paul is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce and the Institute of Consulting and runs his own market intelligence and governance company.

Anna Sabine

Chief Executive
MPC

Anna is the Chief Executive of Meeting Place Communications, which helps developers secure planning consents through work with politicians, communities and the media. She has been at MPC for 10 years, running major pre- app consultation programmes for housebuilders, universities and financial investors. Before this she worked as a Campaign Manager for the Lib Dems and in the voluntary sector; she has a PPE degree from Oxford University. Anna is passionate about involving more women in the planning and development sector, and about growing the use of social media in the industry.