What is your background and experience in the property industry?
I have about 20 years experience in the planning sector, initially in local government, then with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and more recently in private consultancy, helping clients in London and across the UK get planning permission. I spent most of my time at the GLA leading the team responsible for some of the largest and most controversial projects in London, those that the Mayor of London took a particular interest in. After that I spent nearly 4 years at DP9, advising clients across a range of projects and sectors including large masterplans, tall buildings, student housing and data centres.
Can you tell us a bit about your business and what you do?
At Fletcher King, the core part of our business is asset management and investment, but we also offer professional services in valuation and facilities management. We recently brought planning in-house and I joined 5 months ago to help grow that side of the business, adding value through planning for our established client base, many of whom have been with us for decades. But we are also looking to grow the planning consultancy offer to the wider development industry. It’s a really exciting time to be a planner, and it is great to be part of an ambitious firm with wide-ranging real estate expertise.
Who are your typical clients, and how do you market your service?
The core work we do in the Planning & Development Team comes through the Fletcher King business, working with asset management to get the most out of existing assets and to make the best investment decisions. Beyond that I am privileged to have got to know a great many people in the property industry across my various roles, many of whom are now my clients. Close relationships with trusted advisors are the cornerstone of the sector and almost all new connections are through word of mouth or industry events.
How did you first cross paths with Newmanor Law?
Fletcher King have an established relationship with Newmanor Law and collaborate regularly, including through events and seminars. They are a great way of bringing clients together to discuss particular topics and share experiences.
What are the key challenges currently facing the real estate sector, and how are you addressing them?
The most well publicized one from a planning perspective is the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes over the course of this Parliament. It is rightly making all planning authorities look again at how they will meet housing need, and be more realistic about how much of that can be achieved on previously developed land. It puts more pressure on local authorities to demonstrate deliverability, which they will rely on us to evidence. It will also mean greater density and tackling complex viability challenges head-on, which we will need to justify alongside relevant specialists. There will need to be significant public-private sector partnership working – we are up for the challenge!
As well as housing need, we also need to plan for where people are going to work. Since the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a big increase in remote and hybrid working. Companies and workspace operators need to do more to attract workers back to the office, including enhancing the amenity provision of their buildings. Achieving this in the context of the big push to retain buildings where possible to save embodied carbon is a real challenge. I work with a number of clients in this position and believe strongly in the benefits of enhancing existing buildings, dubbed the ‘flight to quality’. It is also critical for encouraging workers back to city centres.
What trends do you foresee shaping the real estate industry in the coming years?
There is a strong trend towards data centre development, both on industrial land and in the green belt. This has been buoyed by increased demand from the big hyperscalers given the increasing reliance on AI and Cloud-based storage. This asset class now has national recognition in the December 2024 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and we are seeing this play out through a number of recent positive local authority and appeal decisions.
The concept of ‘grey belt’, again introduced in the December 2024 NPPF, is also changing the way we look at the edges of our urban areas. This has rightly prompted more critical thinking about what is an almost century-old policy governing green belt development; which now must be considered against the backdrop of a compelling need for housing and other uses.