Jennet Siebrits

Head of UK Research
CBRE

Jennet is an economist with over twenty five years’ experience. Jennet joined CBRE 18 years ago to set up the residential research team. For the past three years she has also taken over responsibility for the commercial research teams. She focuses on the big issues in the real estate world, identifying trends, analysing the market, and providing clients with unrivalled insight and ideas. Jennet regularly produces bespoke reports for clients that help inform their strategic decision-making process.

In addition, she produces a wide-ranging programme of thought leadership looking at issues such as placemaking, premium pricing and the impact of regeneration. Jennet spends a significant amount of time presenting to clients (developer and buyers) to keep them up to date with market developments.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith

Chief Executive
L&Q

Fiona was appointed as L&Q’s Chief Executive in September 2020. A chartered surveyor, with almost 30 years of experience in the housing sector, Fiona has worked in a variety of voluntary and public sector roles including advising homeless people in Dublin, housing management, development and regeneration, strategy and policy development.

Fiona was previously L&Q’s Director of Development and Sales, spearheading a £5.1 billion development programme. Whilst in this role, Fiona led our development and strategic land programmes, including landmark projects such as the 10,800-home Barking Riverside development. She also oversaw the group’s expansion beyond the South East and delivered change programmes to improve both the efficiency and diversity of our Development and Sales function.

Prior to joining L&Q, Fiona was Executive Director for Development, Enterprise and Environment at the Greater London Authority (GLA). As part of their senior management team, Fiona was responsible for overseeing the delivery and implementation of key strategies such as the London Plan and overseeing the operation of the Mayor’s powers in relation to significant planning applications in the capital.

Fiona is the current chair of trustees at the Centre for London, helping the capital’s think tank to meet their charitable objectives.

Ben Denton

Chief Executive
L&G Affordable Homes

Ben is Chief Executive of Legal & General Affordable Homes and joined at the inception of the business in August 2018.

Ben has over 30 years of experience across housing design and development, regeneration and real estate. Ben joined Legal & General Affordable Homes from Sovereign Housing Association, the 6th largest housing association in the UK where he was Executive Director of Property and Development, responsible for sales and a development programme of 1,300 homes a year. Previous positions include Group Director of Strategy and Business Development at house builder Keepmoat, Executive Director of Growth, Planning and Housing at Westminster City Council, Director of Investment at First Base and was a Director and Executive Consultant for ABROS financial advisory and KPMG.

Additionally, Ben was previously Chair at Westminster Community Homes and held various Board and Committee positions at Thames Valley Housing Association.

Clare Miller

Group Chief Executive
Clarion Housing

Clare has been our Group Chief Executive since 2018. She is a chartered accountant with almost 30 years’ experience in the housing sector. Clare joined the Housing Corporation in 1992 as a financial regulator. Over the next 18 years progressed to become its Director of Regulation.

She then became an Executive Director at the Tenant Services Authority, with responsibility for housing association regulation. In 2010 Clare joined Affinity Sutton as Group Director of Governance and Compliance. She took up the same role at Clarion in 2016, before taking on her current role two years later.

Ric Blakeway

Housing Ombudsman

Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and a non-executive director of Homes England.

During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land generation programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council.

Richard also chairs the Ombudsman Association and is a board member of the British Library.

Cllr Promise Knight

Cabinet Member for Housing, Homelessness and Renters Security
Brent Council

Cllr Promise Knight is Cabinet Lead Member for Housing, Homelessness and Renters’ Security at Brent Council where she has strategic oversight over a range of housing services, including Brent’s private housing strategy and renters’ support. Promise has worked for a number of Parliamentarians in both Houses of Parliament, and at Citizens UK as a Community Organiser responsible for civic engagement.

David Lunts

Chief Executive Officer
Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation

David Lunts was appointed as the permanent Chief Executive Officer of Old Oak and Park Royal Development in January 2021. He had previously been the interim Chief Executive Officer for OPDC since February 2019, and combined his work on London’s largest Opportunity Area with his duties as Executive Director of Housing and Land for the Greater London Authority. Between 2009-2012 David led as the Executive Director for London at the Homes and Communities Agency. His earlier career included three years at the GLA as Executive Director of Policy and Partnerships under Ken Livingstone, a leading role in housing and regeneration with Manchester City Council during the 1980s and early 90s and a three-year spell as director of Urban Policy for John Prescott at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Ailish Christian-West

Chief Operating Officer
Get Living

Ailish is Chief Operating Officer at Get Living, responsible for the performance of Get Living’s circa £3bn build-to-rent neighbourhood portfolio and the development pipeline portfolio of a potential 6,500 homes. She leads Get Livings ESG agenda and supports industry collaboration on a broad range of issues. Ailish has been with Get Living since 2020 supporting a rapid growth in the business and leading on operational efficiencies and customer experience strategies. Prior to Get Living, Ailish enjoyed 12 years at Landsec, laterally as an executive committee member responsible for portfolio management and portfolio operations. At Landsec she led key strategic initiatives, creating significant portfolio value and repositioned the retail business to exit the secondary shopping centre sector ahead of a significant decline in market values. She also spent ten years in fund management, running core plus and opportunistic funds including at La Salle Investment Management.

Tom Copley

Deputy Mayor for Housing & Residential Development
Greater London Authority

Tom Copley became Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development in March 2020 and oversees the Mayor’s two affordable homes programmes, including ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ – the first-ever City Hall initiative dedicated to council homebuilding.

Tom also oversees the Mayor’s work to improve the private rented sector, support the delivery of community-led housing, commission services to support rough sleepers, and on building safety.

He sits on the board of Barking Riverside Ltd, a joint venture between the GLA and L&Q housing association which is delivering 10,800 homes along with new transport and other infrastructure in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Before becoming a Deputy Mayor, Tom was a London Assembly London-wide List Member for eight years, serving as Chair of the Assembly’s housing committee and as Labour Group housing spokesperson. He also served on Lewisham Council, representing Sydenham.

Prior to his election to the Assembly, Tom worked for Hope not hate - an anti-fascist, anti-racist charity that works with communities to fight racism and hatred.

He is a trustee of New Diorama Theatre in Camden.

Kate Ives

Strategic Growth Director
Countryside Partnerships

Kate is a geographer, town planner, housing practitioner, and social impact champion. Her work centres around housing delivery but a significant part of that is wider regeneration on major city projects such as Beam Park in Barking and Clapham Park in Lambeth. Kate’s centre of gravity is always directed towards supporting and helping others at a community level, and she does that through active management of the social value impact teams that she runs. Her role sees her working with the public sector to deliver long term regeneration on public land, working in partnership with local Councils, housing associations and local community groups. She also represents Countryside on JV project boards and supports good governance practice.

Claire Dutch

Practice Group Head, UK, Real Estate
Ashurst

Claire has been described in the legal directories as a “leader in the field of planning”. She specialises on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious planning law. She helps clients on strategy and policy at the inception of a development scheme, planning applications, environmental impact assessment, planning agreements, the community infrastructure levy and appeals and judicial review.

Claire has advised the public and private sector on some of the country’s most notable and iconic development and infrastructure projects. She has featured in The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” and numerous polls of influential people in the planning industry. She is the Vice Chair of the British Property Federation’s planning committee and a member of the Oxford Joint Planning Law Conference Committee.

Jonathan Seal

Chief Executive Officer
Regal London

Jonathan Seal started his career as a trainee solicitor with Lovell White Durrant in 1997, qualifiying into the corporate finance department specialising in M&A and private equity. He subsequently moved away from the law into investment banking and then went on to spend 20+ years in private equity, latterly as a partner at Nova Capital, managing their European secondary business.

Jonathan joined Regal London in 2016 as a Non-Executive Director to spearhead its strategic growth plans and subsequently moved into a full time role, now as Chief Executive Officer. Jonathan is also a Non Executive Director of Modulous, an early stage proptech company.