Room151’s Housing151 2025

A highly regarded and well-known expert in the sector, Jonathan has worked in local government for more than 20 years, including seven years as strategic director at London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and the creator of B&D Reside, the council’s affordable housing company. Jonathan continues to support councils on the development and delivery of affordable housing and regeneration schemes. He has been a board member of Barnsbury Housing Association since 2017.

Eamonn Boylan joined Homes England as Interim Chief Executive in January 2025. Prior to this, he was Interim Chief Executive for Manchester City Council. He was also one of 10 housing and development experts serving on the Government’s New Towns Taskforce, though stepped down prior to joining Homes England.   

Eamonn has more than 4 decades of experience in prestigious public sector roles with a focus on leading large organisations and delivering place-based regeneration. He has served as Chief Executive for Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester, and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. While at Stockport, Eamonn led the Council’s £1 billion programme of investment in infrastructure and town centre regeneration. He has also previously held the role of Deputy Chief Executive at the Homes and Communities Agency (Homes England’s predecessor).  

As Deputy Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, Eamonn led the Regeneration Directorate encompassing housing and planning and led major place-based regeneration projects in Hulme and Ancoats.

Carol is currently the Executive Director, Finance at Birmingham City Council after completing a spell as a Commissioner at Woking Borough Council and her year as CIPFA President.

She was previously the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer at Manchester City Council . As well as being the S151 officer, she had responsibility for the Corporate Core and for driving a number of priorities such as the leading on the Council’s Zero Carbon Action Plan and as SRO for The Factory and Town Hall projects. Her previous experience in Manchester has included her role as Deputy City Treasurer responsible for Finance and Performance and ICT as well as being a member of the Health and Social Care Devolution Team, as Assistant Chief Executive overseeing Finance and Performance and as the Assistant Director of Finance and Commissioning for Social Services.

She is CIPFA qualified and has a diploma in management. Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles. 

Pat joined Slough Borough Council as executive director of regeneration, housing & environment in October 2022.

Prior to this Pat was Managing Director of Be First, Barking and Dagenham Council’s independent regeneration arm, with a mission to accelerate growth. Be First aims to capitalise on the borough’s position as London’s hottest investment and development opportunity to deliver 50,000 new homes and 20,000 jobs in the next 20 years.

Previously, Pat was Executive Director of Regeneration & Housing with Ealing Council during which time the borough became one of the most successful in London at attracting in new developments and transforming its public housing stock.

Pat was responsible for bringing forward the Southall Waterside development with the Berkeley Group, South Acton Estate with Countryside Properties and the delivery of Ealing Film Works with St George.  He oversaw the evolution of the Council’s housing company Broadway Living as a major build to rent developer.

Before joining Ealing, Pat worked for Transport for London as Director of Borough Partnerships and prior to that, spent four years at Lewisham Council as Executive Director for Regeneration and Environment. Pat has also worked for five other boroughs during a 25-year career in local government.

Outside work Pat cycle races, has an allotment and watches Leyton Orient Football Club.

Nicki joined Liverpool City Council in August 2023, leading services covering highways and transport, parking, housing, libraries and leisure services, emergency planning, safer, stronger communities, licensing, public protection, environment and enforcement. Nicki is leading on the Council’s neighbourhood delivery model.

Nicki has worked for the last 15 years in local government at a senior level. Prior to joining Liverpool, she led the Neighbourhoods Directorate at Wirral Council alongside supporting the Chief Executive as a member of the senior leadership Team.

Nicki has strong regional knowledge as well as working nationally with councils, stakeholders and regular briefings with Government policy officers.

Matthew is an experienced local government finance and investment professional. After starting his career as a trainee at the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 2008, he has spent his whole career in local government, having worked across seven London local authorities in a variety of different finance roles, with specialist experience in financing, treasury and pensions investments.

Matthew spent five years as the Strategic Investment Manager of the Tri-Borough Treasury and Pensions team, leading on investment matters and advised the Investment Committees for the City of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Bexley Pension Funds, with a combined asset value of £6bn. Matthew also advised the climate emergency project team for the City of Westminster, ensuring climate change risks were factored into the capital allocation process and that investment risks are properly integrated into the City’s climate action plan.

Matthew joined  London Borough of Islington in 2022 as Deputy Director of finance, taking on responsibility for all corporate finance matters including all of corporate finance and budget strategy, treasury and pensions, financial systems and automation.

Sam is TGE’s Head of Place-Based Impact Investing, advising local government, fund managers and asset owners on how to drive more impact-focused investment in places. He brings 30 years of experience developing, reviewing and delivering investment solutions from both an advisory and investor/developer perspective. Sam played a leading role in delivering the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) UK Urban Futures Commission’s report ‘Unleashing the potential of the UK’s cities’ and also advises the Royal Foundation’s Homewards project seeking new ways to end homelessness across the UK.

Prior to joining TGE, Sam worked for Grosvenor where he led financial analysis, research and strategy in the UK property business for several years, including playing a leading role in developing Grosvenor’s net zero and social impact strategies. He also led the creation of Grosvenor Hart Homes, an impact-focused housing business.

Waqar has worked for L&Q for more than 25 years and was appointed Group Finance Director in 2008.

His priority has been to develop a management culture across L&Q that aims to optimise our social objectives by adopting a commercial approach to all areas of operations as well as taking measured risks to maximise investment in growth.

Waqar has supported L&Q in taking on commercial activities, strategic joint ventures and vertical integration in both operational and development functions to generate significant financial strength to maximise our social impact. Furthermore, he is the Executive lead for L&Q’s £1.5 billion Private Rented Sector business.

Waqar has further supported the L&Q Foundation in creating long-term sustainable partnerships with other like-minded charities investing in the social fabric of the areas we work in.

Waqar also sits on the boards of the National Housing Federation and is a trustee of the national homeless charity, Crisis.

David is the Strategic Head of Property at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and has a specific mandate in looking at ways to unlock institutional capital to deal with TA and housing delivery generally.  He comes from a Private Equity Real Estate background and was one of the founders of Chayton Capital. He was formerly a Partner at Knight Frank and Co-Head of the company’s European Property Valuation team. He has worked with numerous institutional investors, funds and international banks, providing real estate investment and acquisition advice and support, and has been involved in all types of commercial and residential projects in virtually all major markets across Western and Eastern Europe and served as advisor to many entities, including several governments and international organisations.

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.

Jody is the Chief Finance Officer at Cambridge City Council, having previously also worked at Uttlesford District Council. Prior to joining the local government sector, Jody spent 10 years as an external auditor of a variety of public sector organisations, as well as a stint as Head of Financial Accounts at the Royal British Legion. Outside of work, Jody volunteers with Explorer Scouts and enjoys organising camps and outdoor activities.

Joanne has worked across the UK for central, regional, and local government, for housing associations and a national social justice charity, driving transformation and the delivery of better outcomes for people, places and the planet. At LB Enfield as well as the housing agenda she leads a large-scale, housing-led growth and regeneration project, and the levelling up of the three wards of Edmonton. LB Enfield is also co-lead Borough for the London Council’s pan-London Climate Change programme for warmer and greener homes through housing retrofit. And Joanne is also co-chair of the London Housing Directors Network.

Anne is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Corporate Treasurer. She has worked in Housing for over ten years at senior level. Before working in Housing, Anne worked in manufacturing for a number of organisations from SME to Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 – latterly as Finance Director for De la Rue in their Currency and Supply Chain division.

Joanne has worked across the UK for central, regional, and local government, for housing associations and a national social justice charity, driving transformation and the delivery of better outcomes for people, places and the planet. At LB Enfield as well as the housing agenda she leads a large-scale, housing-led growth and regeneration project, and the levelling up of the three wards of Edmonton. LB Enfield is also co-lead Borough for the London Council’s pan-London Climate Change programme for warmer and greener homes through housing retrofit. And Joanne is also co-chair of the London Housing Directors Network.

Hannah is the Chief Finance Officer for Watford Borough Council and head of the finance shared service with Three Rivers District Council.  Hannah has previously worked at Oxfordshire County Council and will be joining Southampton City Council at the end of March.  Hannah is closely involved in Watford’s joint ventures which have delivered affordable housing and housing led regeneration in Watford.