Advisory Groups

We have brought together a Westminster Group of parliamentarians that will meet regularly throughout the inquiry. They will hear evidence and testimonials first hand, as well as offering insight and guidance. 

We also have a project advisory group made up of housing association chief executives, local and regional government regeneration specialists, policy experts and academics. They will:

Help shape the inquiry.

Be ambassadors for the project and input into research.

Support with regional engagement.

Click the images to find out more.

Nick Atkin

Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing

Pete Bailey

Lord Richard Best OBE DL

Member of the House of Lords

Jo Boaden CBE

Former Chief Executive Officer of Newcastle Gateshead Pathfinder

Cedric Boston

Group Chief Executive, Unity Homes and Enterprise

Eamonn Boylon

Former Interim Chief Executive of Homes England

Aisha Cuthbert

Director of Strategy and Communications, Riverside

Sasha Deepwell

Chief Executive, Irwell Valley

Rachael Dennis

Chief Executive, Incommunities

Branwen Evans

Group Director of Sustainability and Policy, Places for People

Jane Everton CBE

Chair of Outward Housing and Newlon Housing board member, and former Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) senior civil servant

Ed Ferrari

Research Director, Mosodi Ltd

Paul Fiddaman

Group Chief Executive, Karbon Homes

Tracy Gordon

Lead Officer for Housing Partnerships, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Claire Griffiths

Group Chief Executive, Cobalt Housing

Neil Guthrie

Development Director (Residential), Sunderland City Council

Ben Hanson

Head of Strategy, Market Intervention and Growth, Hull City Council

Amanda Hurford

Former Deputy Director at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Jack Lee

, Director of Policy and External Affairs, Guinness Partnership

Phil Mayall

Managing Director, Muse

Patrick Murray

Executive Director of Policy and External Relations, Northern Housing Consortium

Charlie Norman

Group Chief Executive, Mosscare St Vincent’s

Mike Palin

Former Executive Director at Homes England and former Chief Executive of St Helens Council

Bronwen Rapley

Chief Executive, Onward

Joe Sarling

Economist and Strategic Director, Greater Manchester Moving

Matthew Walker

Chief Executive, Leeds Federated Housing & Chair, Placeshapers

Nick Atkin

Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing

Nick joined Yorkshire Housing (YH) in 2019. Since this time, he’s continued to deliver transformational change throughout the business to meet the future opportunities and challenges. The business manages 20,000 homes across the entire Yorkshire geography.

YH is more than halfway through delivering on its ambition to build an additional 8,000 homes through an investment totalling £1.67bn. Currently employing 950 people it has a combined annual turnover of £300m (£155m revenue/ £145m capital).

Nick advocates the use of digital as an enabler to drive fundamental change in how businesses operate and is a disruptor in the ‘future of work’ debate. He’s a keen advocate of devolution and has written the three Housing Prospectuses for West, South and North Yorkshire respectively. He Chairs the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership and is Vice Chair of both the West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Housing Partnerships respectively.

He writes regularly for Inside Housing as one of their columnists and is a strong advocate of the need for the housing sector to improve how it communicates with the wider world.

Pete Bailey

Pete began his career working in Housing Aid and then in private sector renewal for Manchester City Council later moving to Rochdale Council to run their Renewal Area programme.

He went on to take up senior positions in regional Government and the then HCA with a focus on housing strategy and renewal.

Before retiring, Pete became an Associate of the NHC and worked on reports such as the Commission for Housing in the North and on the impact on health of poor housing.

Lord Richard Best OBE DL

Member of the House of Lords

Lord Best is a British housing sector leader and policy expert in the House of Lords. He was created a life peer in 2001 and sits as an independent Crossbencher.

Lord Best was Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation for 15 years then of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for 18 years; he was Chair of The Property Ombudsman and Chair of Hanover Housing Association; he has chaired a series of commissions and inquiries covering rural housing, housing in Northern Ireland, housing for an ageing population, local authority housing, private renting, among others.

He has successfully piloted six Private Members Bills through the House of Lords (most recently the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill); he has also chaired two Select Committees. Currently, he chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People.

Lord Best has previously chaired the government’s Regulation of Property Agents Working Group; the Devon Housing Commission; the Affordable Housing Commission (of the Smith Institute/Nationwide Foundation); and the Centre for Social Justice’s Housing Commission. He is a Hon Fellow of the RIBA and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Jo Boaden CBE

Former Chief Executive Officer of Newcastle Gateshead Pathfinder

Jo started her career as an Environmental Health Officer in Glasgow and has since held a number of senior roles in housing, regeneration and social policy across the UK in both the public and private sectors. Jo was Chief Executive of the Northern Housing Consortium for nine years.

Jo was a member of the Board of the Regulator of Social Housing in England (2018-2025) and is Chair of CaCHE North and the Midlands Hub – the UK collaborative centre for housing evidence. Prior to this Jo was Chair of Your Homes Newcastle.

She is a former winner of the prestigious Woman of the Year title at the Women in Housing Awards. She was awarded a CBE for services to housing and holds a LLB (Hons) and MBA.

She is currently a Group Board Member of the Wheatley Group and Chairs Wheatley Homes South.

Cedric Boston

Group Chief Executive, Unity Homes and Enterprise

Cedric Boston has over 30 years’ experience in Housing, 25 of them at senior executive level. He is a former Chief Executive of Arhag, a BME association in London that specializes in addressing the needs of migrants and refugees. Prior to that he was Director of Housing at Lambeth Living, one of the UKs largest ALMOs. He has a degree in law and politics from Keele University and is a member of Gray’s Inn where he qualified as a barrister.

Eamonn Boylon

Former Interim Chief Executive of Homes England

Eamonn Boylan was Homes England Interim Chief Executive from January to September 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.

Aisha Cuthbert

Director of Strategy and Communications, Riverside

Aisha has worked in the social housing sector for over a decade in a variety of different marketing, communications and public policy roles. Currently, Aisha is the Director of Strategy and Communications at Riverside, one of the largest housing associations in the UK.

Aisha was previously a councillor and cabinet member for the environment on a London council, and she was also a former Parliamentary candidate.

She was also the Chair of the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) National Communications and Influencing Group between 2020 and 2024, which helps the NHF produce and refine key sector messages for the public, customers, and politicians.

Sasha Deepwell

Chief Executive, Irwell Valley

Sasha is a senior housing executive with a track record of transformational leadership, making a real difference for customers. She joined Irwell Valley Homes in 2017 as Chief Executive. She has held senior positions in the housing sector over the last thirty years and led many award-winning development and regeneration partnerships. Her non-executive roles include: Chair of Hive Homes (joint venture between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and 10 RPs); Board member of North West Housing Services (the UK’s largest mutual services agency for housing co-operatives and community led housing) and Chair of the Centre for Women’s Justice, a national human rights charity. She sits on the ‘Tackling Inequalities’ Board of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and chairs the Greater Manchester Housing Providers Influencing Group.

Rachael Dennis

Chief Executive, Incommunities

Rachael has been the Chief Executive of Incommunities since early 2021, overseeing more than 22,000 homes primarily in Bradford, with a significant presence across West Yorkshire.  

With over 20 years of leadership experience in social housing, Rachael is an expert in strategy, change management, and improving business operations. 

Having started out in finance, her career has spanned various leadership roles, covering operations, strategy and finance. Rachael has also held non-executive roles in housing, the NHS, and with arts charities. 

Rachael’s leadership has been focused on driving positive change in diverse communities. She’s led the organisation through a major transformation, addressing key challenges and setting up a strong foundation for growth – all with a focus on ensuring our customers & communities are at the heart of what we do.  

As a board member for the Northern Housing Consortium and Chair of the West Yorkshire Housing Partnership, Rachael is committed to bringing people together across the region to tackle housing issues and support the development of strong, sustainable communities. 

Branwen Evans

Group Director of Sustainability and Policy, Places for People

As a former civil servant, with more than 20 years’ experience in and around housing and social policy, Branwen is committed to making a positive contribution to society and creating the conditions for brilliant, sustainable and inclusive places. Working at Places for People, Branwen is focused on research, insight and collaboration to enable the organisation to change lives every day through homes and thriving communities.

Jane Everton CBE

Chair of Outward Housing and Newlon Housing board member, and former Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) senior civil servant

Jane is a Board member of Newlon Housing Trust and Chair of Outward, a care and support charity within the Newlon Group, and is Vice Chair of the Northern Housing Consortium.

She was previously Deputy Director of Social Housing in the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities responsible for national policy on social housing and Decent Homes, including the Social Housing White Paper and the Social Housing Regulation Bill until April 2022. She has held senior roles in government on the private rented sector & leasehold, planning, community cohesion and faith, and in supported housing and homelessness.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts as well as Chair of Blackheath Choir. Her professional and voluntary work has included roles in local government, housing associations, housing charities and being a school governor. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015.

Ed Ferrari

Research Director, Mosodi Ltd

Ed is an experienced research leader, with 25 years of experience of researching and evaluating place-based policies. His specific research specialisms include the analysis of housing markets, mobility in the social rented sector, the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to housing research, strategic planning, and the use of secondary data sets for policy research. Until 2025, Ed was Professor at Sheffield Hallam University and led the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. Ed has undertaken research projects on strategic housing issues, including understanding housing markets, targeting neighbourhood interventions, and examining the impacts of policy. He was closely involved in the development of the evidence base for the government’s Housing Market Renewal programme (2002–2010), was a lead member of the consortium undertaking the national evaluation of the HMR Pathfinders, and he contributed to the work of the JRF Housing Markets Taskforce (2011). Ed is Managing Editor of the leading international journal Housing Studies. He is past Chair of the Housing Studies Association, the learned society representing the interests of housing scholars.

Paul Fiddaman

Group Chief Executive, Karbon Homes

Prior to the creation of Karbon Homes, Paul served as Group Chief Executive of the Isos Group. He had previously been Deputy Chief Executive from 1st October 2014 when Cestria Housing became a part of the Isos Housing Group. Paul joined Cestria Housing as Chief Executive in April 2011.

Before Cestria, Paul was Group Director of Finance and Corporate Services at Fabrick Housing Group (now part of the Thirteen Group).

Paul trained as an accountant with Price Waterhouse and qualified in 1990. Paul joined Sunderland Football Club in 1992, initially as Financial Controller, before progressing to General Manager and Club Secretary. His first full-time job in housing was with Enterprise 5 in 1996, where he became Director of Finance and Development. He had been a board member of a housing association while at SAFC and had felt a real connection with the values of the sector and has been involved in housing ever since.

Tracy Gordon

Lead Officer for Housing Partnerships, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Tracy Gordon has 30 years’ experience in the public sector, covering both environmental sustainability and housing. Tracy joined Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in 2019 and has established several new build and retrofit housing programmes, overseeing the housing element of the Net Zero Carbon plan and leading the North West Net Zero Hub.

Claire Griffiths

Group Chief Executive, Cobalt Housing

Claire has spent the majority of her career working in regeneration at organisations in Merseyside and across the North West.

She joined Cobalt as Chief Executive in August 2022 and immediately saw the opportunity to make a real difference in the communities we serve.

She has overall responsibility for the strategic and operational direction and success of Cobalt, working closely with the Board and Senior Management Team to ensure that Cobalt are a strong and effective landlord.

Claire is committed to developing Cobalt’s role to be a growing community anchor organisation, providing additional support in our neighbourhoods to support them to thrive.

Neil Guthrie

Development Director (Residential), Sunderland City Council

With 25 years’ experience in the construction and development industry Neil has been involved in the strategic delivery of high-quality new homes, communities and infrastructure across the UK.

Neil is leading delivery of Sunderland’s strategic residential development programme, providing 8,000 new homes across the city, utilising modern methods of construction, low carbon and renewable energy technology, smart and digital infrastructure.

Alongside delivery of new homes and communities, Neil is passionate about housing innovation and educating, training and creating employment opportunities for the housing workforce and professionals of the future.

Neil’s career spans the public and provide sector, giving him a strong understanding of the innovative funding and delivery solutions that are fundamental to successful placemaking and social and economic regeneration.

Ben Hanson

Head of Strategy, Market Intervention and Growth, Hull City Council

Ben has worked for Hull City Council since 2006 with roles spanning frontline housing practice, tenant involvement, homelessness and housing strategy/growth. Now as the Head of Strategy, Market Intervention and Growth with responsibility for appraisals of existing housing stock and the delivery of new council homes in Hull, Ben reflects on the impact that previous national and Hull-specific initiatives have had on dealing with housing stock at the end of its life, and what the plan is going forwards.

Amanda Hurford

Former Deputy Director at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Now retired, Amanda joined the civil service following a successful career in public relations and employee communications in the private sector. Initially working as a communications specialist, Amanda devised and led internal and external communications campaigns supporting change and service transformation in the Department for Work and Pensions and skills policy in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

She moved across to lead small business policy development before transferring to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to work on housing policy in 2015. At MHCLG, Amanda was responsible for a portfolio of programmes in excess of £10bn, investing in land and infrastructure projects supporting the delivery of hundreds of thousands of homes across the country.

Jack Lee

Director of Policy and External Affairs, Guinness Partnership

Before joining The Guinness Partnership in September 2017 as Director of Policy and External Affairs, Jack was Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement, HCA responsible for identifying and resolving serious cases of housing association failure, managing risks to the sector and the regulator’s core objectives and reputation.

Phil Mayall

Managing Director, Muse

Phil is Managing Director at nationwide placemaker, Muse.

Phil joined Muse in 2006 as Development Surveyor and was promoted to the role of Development Director in 2011.  He assumed the role of Managing Director – North West in 2018, and then Managing Director in 2023.

At Muse, Phil leads a team of talented colleagues who deliver mixed-use regeneration across the UK, creating places with the emphasis on sustainability, community and quality.

Muse combines local insight with the resources and capabilities of a nationwide organisation, with regional businesses based in Manchester, Leeds, London and Birmingham.

As part of Morgan Sindall Group, Muse has the financial strength of a leading UK construction and regeneration group.

Phil is a member of the Morgan Sindall Group Management Team and a Board Director for ECF, a £400m partnership between Homes England, Legal & General and Muse. ECF works alongside the public sector to deliver large-scale, area wide regeneration over the long-term, in places where it really matters.

Phil is also a member of the British Property Federation and Property Leaders Council, Fellow of the RSA and Governor of Oldham College.

Patrick Murray

Executive Director of Policy and External Relations, Northern Housing Consortium

Patrick oversees NHC’s policy, public affairs, membership engagement, and communications work. He joined NHC from MHCLG where he most recently worked on the Public Bodies Review of Homes England. Previously he was the Department’s policy lead for affordable housing investment and led the policy work to secure £11.5bn for the previous Affordable Homes Programme. He has also worked in the Department of Health and Social Care, where he led the policy team responsible for social care markets and local authority commissioning.

Patrick started his career in local government where he was a Councillor and Cabinet Member for Housing on a stock-holding local authority. He has also worked in policy roles elsewhere including at the National Housing Federation.

Charlie Norman

Group Chief Executive, Mosscare St Vincent’s

Charlie has worked in the sector for over 30 years, across the North West and in Vancouver, Canada, with a background in community and co-operative development, neighbourhood management and regeneration.

Charlie is honoured to be CEO of MSV, having worked for the business for almost 20 years and committed to providing the best service possible for our residents. Charlie is also Chair of the Northern Housing Consortium, a trustee of Mustard Tree Charity, Chair of the Greater Manchester Housing Providers Group and proud to be Lead Officer for MSV’s Board.

Working with a wide range of colleagues, customers, community and voluntary sector friends and partners, Charlie is a passionate campaigner for social justice and tackling inequality, hoping for inclusion, good health and opportunity for this and future generations.

Charlie is also a firm believer in building a great work environment where people can flourish with a focus on flexibility, agility and creativity. Charlie has an MBA, is a committed vegan and loves a good hike in the hills.

Mike Palin

Former Executive Director at Homes England and former Chief Executive of St Helens Council

Mike is an independent consultant working with both the public and private sector on wide-area regeneration initiatives and devolution, as well as broader organisational design.

Until 2024 he was an Executive Director of Homes England leading its engagement with Combined Authorities and regeneration initiatives throughout the Country and had Executive lead responsibility for the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land (BIL) Programme.

Mike is a former LA Chief Executive, LEP Executive Director. As Chief Executive of St Helens Council he delivered a new economic approach that saw the Borough have the second highest per capita jobs growth in the entire North of England as well as attracting significant new investment. He also led one of the early (and award winning) local integrated health and care systems in England.

Mike has previously been a Board Member of the Northern Housing Consortium and was a Commissioner on the NHCs influential work on Housing in the North published in 2016. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society based on his expertise in economic growth.

Bronwen Rapley

Chief Executive, Onward

Bronwen joined Onward in 2016 and spearheaded its creation by bringing five separate housing associations into a resilient and united organisation committed to the customers and communities it serves across the North West.

Leading the strategic direction of Onward, Bronwen oversees the effective planning, controls, and performance of the organisation to ensure the needs of customers and stakeholders are met through an ambitious corporate plan.

Looking to the future, her priority for Onward is to work with customers to build thriving communities, supported by the security of good quality, green homes, and places.

Bronwen has worked in housing and regeneration for 30 years, initially as a solicitor and then by delivering a number of large regeneration projects in the North West. Prior to joining Onward, Bronwen led the investigation and enforcement team at the Regulator of Social Housing.

Joe Sarling

Economist and Strategic Director, Greater Manchester Moving

Joe Sarling graduated in 2009 with MSc Development Economics (SOAS) after completing my BA Economics and Business (UCL) in 2008. Now based in London, he works as a housing economist and is interested in the housing market, land market, regional banks, financial reform, the role that the private sector can play in communities, the effects of the drive towards localism, and regional economic growth and tax reform (mainly land and property).

Matthew Walker

Chief Executive, Leeds Federated Housing

Matthew Walker is Chief Executive of Leeds Federated Housing Association. He is also Chair and a founding member of PlaceShapers, a national network of 90 community-focused housing associations. Matthew is passionate about helping people make a home.