Spokespeople

Robert Napier

Position: Chairman

Specialist areas: Can speak on any area of the HCA’s business.

Previous experience: Formerly chairman of English Partnerships. Previous roles include Chief Executive of WWF-UK, and Financial Director, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Redland Plc. Robert is currently Chairman of the Met Office, Chairman of the Trustees of the Carbon Disclosure Project, and a Non-Executive Director of Anglian Water Services. Previous non-executive director roles include Rentokil Initial plc and United Biscuits plc.

Pat Ritchie

Position: Chief Executive

Specialist areas: Economic development, regeneration, Northern Way, local investment planning.

Previous experience: Formerly HCA director for the North East of England. Prior to this, Pat was Assistant Chief Executive (Strategy) at One North East and Deputy Chief Executive of The Wise Group employment and training company. She has also held senior management roles with EDI, chaired the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum, and worked in various posts in economic development and regeneration for Newcastle and Sunderland City Councils.

Richard Hill

Position: Executive Director – Programmes and Deputy Chief Executive

Specialist areas: Investment, policy, NAHP, strategy, HomeBuy and other low cost home ownership products.

Previous experience: Director of Investment at the Housing Corporation. Previous roles include Head of Strategy and Policy at the NHSU and Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the New Opportunities Fund.

Richard Ennis

Position: Executive Director – Finance and Corporate Services

Specialist areas: Finance, resources, operations.

Previous experience: Executive Director of Corporate Resources at the London Borough of Ealing and prior to that, Executive Director of Finance and Resources at the London Borough of Lambeth. He has also worked for the City of Westminster, Guildford and Slough councils, the Post Office and Lloyds Bank.

Terry Fuller

Position: Executive Director – East and South East

Specialist areas: Housing and planning, delivering affordable housing through PPS3, Section 106 negotiations, viability testing.

Previous experience: MD of Major Projects and Affordable Housing at Taylor Wimpey Developments, has previously held senior posts with Lovell, Barratts and Taylor Woodrow, and within public sector housing management. Terry also chaired the HBF Affordable Housing Group and was a member of the HBF Planning Committee, alongside various other ODPM/CLG planning and affordable housing working groups. He has also sat on four different Registered Provider boards and was previously an Editorial board member of ROOF magazine.

Margaret Allen

Position: Executive Director - Change Programme

Specialist areas: Investment, finance, regulation, housing.

Previous experience: Field Director (Central) at the Housing Corporation, overseeing delivery of the Corporation’s Investment and Regulation objectives across East Midlands, East of England and the West Midlands. Margaret also sat on the Board of both market renewal and growth delivery vehicles.

As a chartered accountant she was Head of Finance with a Midlands-based housing association, and also worked in finance at Leicester City Council.

Deborah McLaughlin

Position: Executive Director – North West

Specialist areas: Housing, economic development, URCs.

Previous experience: Director of Housing for Manchester City Council. She also worked for the Audit Commission, where she was also Northern Region Housing Lead.

Deborah is currently Chair of the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA), Chair of the North West Stewardship Group, a member of the North West Leaders Board and is a Director of Norwepp (NWDA Subsidiary) Ltd. 

Colin Molton

Position: Executive Director – South and South West

Specialist areas: Rural housing, economic development, regeneration.

Previous experience: Previous roles include Deputy Chief Executive for the South West Regional Development Agency, and Board member for both Plymouth CDC and Camborne Pool Redruth URC.

A chartered surveyor by profession, Colin has held economic development and regeneration roles at Hampshire County Council, Bradford City Council and Leeds Development Corporation. He was also English Partnerships’ Head of Regeneration for the West Midlands, where he helped establish Advantage West Midlands RDA. Colin leads the HCA's rural housing delivery agenda.

David Curtis

Position: Executive Director – North East, Yorkshire and The Humber

Specialist areas: Planning, development, transport, regeneration, HMR.

Previous experience: David was previously Director of Development Services with Sheffield City Council. Qualified in planning, regeneration and transportation, he has worked for several local authorities in the region. Other roles include Assistant Director of Development and Transport at the City of York and Principal Planning Officer for Regeneration in the City of Hull.

David chairs the National Coalfields Programme Board and leads the HCA’s agenda on planning and transport matters.

Jim Bennett

Position: Head of Corporate Strategy

Specialist areas: Housing policy, urban policy, worklessness, Local Enterprise Partnerships, community cohesion, empty homes, equality and diversity, homelessness and vulnerable and older people policy.

Previous experience: Head of Policy for the Housing Corporation. Previous roles include senior research fellow leading on housing and welfare research for the Institute for Public Policy Research and Head of Policy at Shelter.

Jane Briginshaw

Position: Head of Design and Sustainability

Specialist areas: Design and sustainability, architecture, education, standards, exemplar projects.

Previous experience: Extensive public sector development experience in educational sector. Previous roles include Design Director at Partnerships for Schools, and Head of Design, Department for Children Schools and Families. Highly experienced practising architect. Has been local councillor and housing speaker at Wandsworth Borough Council.

Steve Carr

Position: Head of Economic Development

Specialist areas: Economic Assets. HCA new business models and strategy including private rental sector initiative and new land partnership, economic and spatial analysis, growth areas/EcoTowns and low carbon infrastructure funding.

Previous experience: Economist at English Partnerships for 14 years covering private finance and structuring delivery vehicles including Priority Sites, English Cities Fund and London Wide Initiative. Steve was previously responsible for area regeneration at Manchester City Council and started his career in labour market research as a Director of the Low Pay Unit.

Michael Clegg

Position: Head of Existing Stock

Specialist areas: Low Cost Home Ownership, Intermediate Markets, Decent Homes, ALMOs, Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) gap funding, Housing Market Renewal, retrofitting.

Previous experience: National Affordable Housing Programme policy and bidding architecture, and Low Cost Home Ownership policy, for the Housing Corporation. Previous experience of capital and revenue funding programme design, policy development and evaluation across the public and voluntary sectors. He also previously led development of research and evaluation strategies founded on appropriate social research methods.

Simon Leask

Position: Head of ATLAS

Specialist areas: The ATLAS service and its programme, spatial planning and development management, delivering quality places through the planning system, Planning Performance Agreements.

Previous experience: Extensive local authority experience including Head of Development and design at Telford & Wrekin and head of area at Birmingham. Specalisation in the design and delivery of large-scale sustainable communities.

Fiona MacGregor

Position: Head of Affordable Housing

Specialist areas: Affordable housing delivery including Affordable Homes Framework and Affordable Rent offer, Mortgage Rescue, monitoring and evaluation.

Previous experience: Fiona has over twenty years experience working in affordable housing. Prior to her current role she was Head of Investment Programmes at the HCA. She worked at the Housing Corporation as Deputy Director of Investment Programmes both corporately and in the London region, where she started her career in affordable housing. She has also worked in development at London & Quadrant Housing trust North Thames region.

Neil Mortimer

Position: Project director, surplus public sector land

Specialist areas: Public sector land and partners, Surplus Public Sector Land Programme, Hospital Sites Programme.

Previous experience: English Partnerships' Director of National Programmes including National Coalfields Programme, Urban Regeneration Companies and the Land Stabilisation Programme. Director of Network Space Limited. Regeneration and Development Consultant with GVA Grimley. Neil's other private sector roles include development management for property holdings companies and programme delivery of the Housing Market Renewal Initiative in the North West.

Michael Rich

Position: Head of Enabling and Analysis

Specialist areas: Support tools for local delivery, including viability, financial structures and appraisal, spatial and market intelligence.

Previous experience: Michael was previously Head of Strategy Programme and Performance at the HCA for the East Midlands, responsible for programme delivery and strategy development in that area. Prior to this, he has held local authority policy, business support and change roles.  He has also worked for central government, representing BIS and DWP policy within the East Midlands and at Defra developing national legislation and guidance for improving local environmental quality.

Claire O’Shaughnessy 

Position: Head of Land and Regeneration

Specialist areas: Housing supply, land, regeneration, economics, programme delivery (Property and Regeneration) 

Previous experience: Claire has worked at HCA since its inception (previously Head of Investment Analysis) and was responsible for the Kickstart Housing Delivery programme, the Growth and Community Infrastructure programmes, and developing the Agency’s spatial and market intelligence offer.  Prior to that, she was Senior Economist at English Partnerships, which included leading the Agency’s economic appraisal work. She has also worked at the House of Commons on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister  Select Committee, the London Development Agency, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and Coopers & Lybrand.