Longview Networks Housing Investment Forum

Pete leads the team who drive Legal & General’s investments in Productive Finance (which now total over £16bn); using L&G’s internal and external capital pools across lending and equity, including partnerships with other pension schemes and mastertrusts, to drive economic growth and positive social and environmental impact. His team are particularly focussed on investment with the public sector to deliver these outcomes, working closely with central government departments, local and combined authorities, Universities, and Housing Associations.

A former youth worker, Pete is heavily involved in local community projects in West London, an Honorary Professor at University College London, a Freeman of the City of London, a member of HM Treasury’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group, on the Board of L&G Affordable Homes, and a Trustee of the Fairness Foundation.

James is Head of Real Estate Origination at Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a specialist insurer of UK defined benefit pension schemes. James has over 20 years of financial services, capital markets and investment management experience. Prior to PIC, James was Head of Residential at Schroder Real Estate Investment Management.

James leads the insurer’s real estate teams where PIC has made significant investments into Build-to-Rent, Long Income and Affordable Housing for many years. Over this time, PIC has delivered a number of high-profile transactions including the purchase of 2 Ruskin Square (Croydon) let to HM Home Office and Millars Quay at Wirral Waters in partnership with Peel L&P and the HABIKO Joint Venture between PIC, Muse and Homes England.

Jennifer is real estate investment manager with over 25 years’ experience across residential and commercial assets in both public and private sectors. At Homes England as Director of Product, Equity and Partnerships, she shapes strategies to deploy public capital to attract large-scale private investment into housing and regeneration. Previously, she held senior fund management roles at Schroder Investment Management and Tesco Pension Investment. Passionate about financial innovation and collaboration, she believes that through investment in housing, pension and insurance capital can generate stable returns while addressing one of society’s most pressing needs.

Gemma leads Big Society Capital’s property investment and market building strategies which aim to increase the supply of good quality, safe and secure affordable housing in the UK. Gemma’s built environment experience spans impact investment, property and regeneration, consultancy and Local Government.

Prior to Big Society Capital, Gemma worked at Lendlease, a global investment, property and construction company, with roles across construction ops, corporate sustainability and urban regeneration. Gemma was previously the Head of the Lendlease Foundation and a social enterprise, Be Onsite, that supports long-term unemployed including current serving prisoners and ex-offenders into employment. Gemma’s earlier career was in environmental consultancy as a Contaminated Land and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) specialist working on due diligence for land acquisitions, remediating heavily contaminated sites and delivering environmental protection programmes for some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.

Gemma is a Trustee and a volunteer, has a degree and Masters in Chemistry from the University of Surrey and is a Chartered Environmentalist.

Martyn James is the Director of Investment for now:pensions, the UK master trust provider.

Martyn is responsible for leading the investment strategy for the business, with a focus on improving returns and retirement outcomes for its members whilst ensuring the portfolio has a real-world impact on creating a sustainable future for its members.  He is an advocate of making sure the scheme assets are stewarded in a way to help progress the transition to net-zero by 2050.

Martyn joined now:pensions in April 2024.  Prior to joining now:pensions, Martyn spent 22 years at Mercer, most recently as a Partner within Mercer’s UK DC business, but also with a recent two and a half year secondment leading Mercer’s Wealth (Pensions and Investments) business in Latin America.

Ann Xu is a Director and the Portfolio Manager for the CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund, responsible for portfolio management and overseeing the day to day running of the Fund. Ann has worked on the Fund since its inception and focuses on Impact/ESG strategy and implementation, executing transactions and delivering business plan objectives. Ann also previously worked on CBRE UK Property PAIF where her responsibilities included transactions, asset management and ESG.

Prior to joining CBRE Investment Management in 2016, Ann worked at Savills on the commercial graduate training programme.

Ann is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is also FCA approved, holding her Investment Management Certificate since 2019. Ann graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2014 where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Land Economy. Ann is a Certified Person under the FCA’s Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR).

Matthew Forward is the Senior Investment Manager of Real Estate at Nest, where he is responsible for overseeing the scheme’s growing real estate portfolio. He joined Nest in 2025 and previously spent 10 years at LaSalle Investment Management as Portfolio Manager. He has a BSC Hons in Business Administration BBA from University of Bath and has passed all three levels of the CFA program.

Simon is Resonance’s chief investment officer. He joined Resonance in 2012 to establish and grow its award-winning impact investment fund management business, building on Resonance’s 20 year heritage in UK social enterprise. Resonance’s impact property funds now manage c.£330m across its three themes of homelessness, learning disability and vulnerable women, and are attracting institutional investment. In addition, Resonance operates a number of more specialist impact investment funds supporting social enterprise through its Impact Labs.

Simon has over 27 years of investment experience and was previously at Rothschild & Co where he focused on advising on energy and infrastructure projects across Europe and Asia. He has first-hand experience of social enterprise having previously served as a Trustee for a pioneering London-based homelessness charity and for the Transformational Business Network, which focuses on impact investing in Africa and Asia.

Patrick manages the treasury management function for Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Bexley. In addition to the treasury function he is responsible for pension fund governance and manages the pension board for each authority.

Drew joined Better Society Capital’s Investment Team in September 2018. His career has focused on social change and impact measurement in the UK and abroad including roles with The Prince’s Trust, Prince’s Trust International and ActionAid International. As an Investment Director, Drew will work primarily on Better Society Capital’s investments in social property, providing homes for people in need, while also drawing on his expertise in assessing social impact to support Better Society Capital’s investment decision making and impact management.

Drew is from Scotland and has spent time living and working abroad in Delhi and Kampala.