Meet the team – Find out more about our Regeneration Manager

One year in September – I still feel new and I can’t believe it’s a year already! 

I’m really lucky to have a very varied role. The basis of it is the delivery of Beyond Housing’s Regeneration Strategic Plan, identifying areas and opportunities which deliver regeneration outcomes for our communities, and working in partnership with internal and external stakeholders to do this.  

A big part of my role is leading the delivery of our £16m investment in the Church Lane North estate in Grangetown, which includes improving the existing homes and the estate layout, creating new public open spaces, and providing 33 new build homes. Another project is the decant and demolition of Spencerbeck House, a high-rise block in Redcar and Cleveland. As well as these major projects, I’m also working to help us to better identify and deliver smaller-scale regeneration projects to support long-term sustainability for our customers and their homes. 

The chance to use my experience, the variation, and the new challenges every day. I’ve enjoyed getting to know colleagues right across the organisation who can support the delivery of the strategy and working with a range of external people and partners, both new and from my existing network. It’s gratifying to see tangible results, such as the recent handovers of the first new build homes at Church Lane North. I grew up in Redcar, not far from our offices, and still have firm links with the area so it’s fantastic to be able to work in areas I know well and truly care about. 

It’s so difficult to pick one thing! I’ve worked in housing for over 25 years in quite a few different roles. I have worked in America, met Princess Anne (twice) and travelled all over the country, including one particularly memorable community consultation on the Isle of Arran. If I had to pick one thing, it would be when I was seconded into the Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme team in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) whilst I was at Homes England, specifically the privilege of meeting former rough sleepers and hearing their stories after they had moved into the accommodation developed and funded by the programme.

That’s a difficult one. I turn 50 in that time so I have said that I will run a marathon before then and take some singing lessons. I have managed two singing lessons so far. Not much of a mid-life crisis! I’m looking forward to settling in at Beyond Housing and seeing the outcomes of the regeneration strategy come to fruition and looking to the next opportunities. Regeneration seems to have come back into fashion, just like my 90s outfits. 

I have a 14-year-old son, Jackson, and I’m married to Simon who is a landscape architect and we live in York. We also have Lucy, our 11-year-old rescued Jack Russell who is pretty high maintenance. As for hobbies, I sing with a Bluegrass band in a small harmony group backed up by various musicians and instruments (think American folk/country!). I love reading and I tolerate exercise – I’ve recently started Pilates classes, which are surprisingly hard work. 

I’m not a huge film fan or expert but I do enjoy the Coen brothers’ films. I loved Fargo, especially the Marge Gunderson character, and that’s one I can watch again and again. I love Christmas films too, especially Elf and Miracle on 34th Street (I believe!). 

I love live music and I’ve been to see loads of bands, starting with James at Middlesbrough Town Hall circa 1992 and most recently Pulp at Sheffield Arena. It’s so hard to pick a favourite, and that Pulp gig would be among them, but if I had to pick it would be seeing Aretha Franklin in the mid-00s. She really was a force of nature. 

Go for it, you never know where this sector will take you! People’s need for safe and suitable homes is so fundamental, and there are so many opportunities to impact people’s lives for the better in this industry.