Government Property Conference; In partnership with Mitie

LCR – Andrew Ferguson, Partnerships and Property Director

Acting as development partners on several town and city centre regeneration schemes across the country. Unfazed by scale, they are making a difference to major core cities such as Manchester as part of the £400m Mayfield Partnership and lending their expertise to places such as Worthing and Stafford where their ideas are helping to reshape the urban centres. Andrew joins the event to discuss their approaches to unlocking a wide pipeline of projects and their visions for the places in which they are developing.

Defence Infrastructure Organisation – Mike Green, Chief Executive

12% of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s budget is spent on improving and maintaining estate across the UK. Mike is charged with implementing the forthcoming £4.3bn new defence infrastructure strategy which will be delivered over the course of 10 years. There are 56 individual pledges to be delivered between 2022 and 2027 and he joins the event to set out these plans in detail.

Cabinet Office – Gillian Brown, Head of Property Sustainability

Gillian is an accomplished energy manager with over 17 years of experience in public sector energy management. As Head of Property Sustainability within the Cabinet Office her role is to develop collaborative solutions to sustainability issues faced by the UK government property portfolio. Prior to this she was Energy Manager at the University of Glasgow where she was responsible for the optimisation of energy sources and active management of the energy consumption within University. Previous roles saw Gillian leading on a number of large scale energy projects and renewable designs and installations in some complex and highly critical buildings. Gillian holds a number of honorary positions, namely Vice Chair of the board of Directors of the Energy Managers Association, Chair of Empowering Women in Energy Management, a member of the West Dumbartonshire Energy LLB directors board and represents the public sector on the UK Net Zero Building Standards development group.

Department for Work and Pensions – Craig Varian, Director of Estates

With an estate spanning 1.4sqm across 800 locations nationally and an annual maintenance cost of £500m the Department for Work and Pensions continues to have an agile property portfolio and is constantly developing sites across the UK. During the pandemic they opened 150 new locations and are now flexibly modifying their portfolio to deal with national demands. Craig joins the event to disclose future strategy and document the challenges and learnings of the past few years.

Government Property Agency – Pat Ritchie CBE, Chair

Pat Ritchie CBE is an experienced senior leader in economic development, housing, and property, and is Chair of the Government Property Agency (GPA). Pat was Chief Executive of Newcastle City Council for over eight years, where she notably secured the multi-million-pound investment deal to bring Legal & General to Newcastle’s flagship ‘Helix’ development and led on negotiations to secure a devolution deal for the North of Tyne Mayoral Combined Authority where she was the first head of paid service. Pat led the city’s response to the pandemic and oversaw the Newcastle Covid Recovery Plan including an ambitious £50m plan to transform the city centre. Pat was appointed to Chair of the GPA in January 2020. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Leadership Centre and a member of Newcastle University Council.

HMRC – Colin Casse, Director of Estates and Locations Programme

With an estate that costs an estimated £310m per year to simply operate in multiple locations across 103 locations the UK, Colin is tasked with driving efficiencies and support maintenance needs for HMRC. He joins the conference to unpick some of priority projects while also discussing the how his department are leading the way on delivering sustainable and modern government property.

Homes England – Danielle Gillespie, Director for Cities and Urban Conurbations

Homes England are often cited as the key accelerator of economic growth across the UK and are planning to deliver 300,000 homes per year in the 2020’s. The target is steep and requires more than just building houses- they need to unlock schemes that support investment, jobs and industry. They are key players in the English Cities Fund which is delivering over £2bn of regeneration in the North West of England and also a partner in the £650m York Central project which will combine resi with commercial opportunities and new infrastructure. Danielle joins the event to discuss how the organisation is supporting regional economic growth.

Government Property Agency – Mark Duddy, Deputy Director

More information to follow.

Government Property Agency – Steven Boyd MBE, Chief Executive

As Chief Executive, Steven leads the Government Property Agency (GPA) in transforming the way the Government’s office and logistics property portfolios are managed. The GPA is growing rapidly with currently seven million square feet of property under its management. The GPA is transforming the future of work in the Civil Service, improving the workplace experience for civil servants across the UK, leading the largest commercial office programme in the United Kingdom, working towards halving carbon emissions from Government offices, and saving billions for the taxpayer.

LocatED – Lara Newman, Chief Executive

LocatED are the government property company responsible for identifying, purchasing, and delivering new school sites across the UK as well as driving efficiencies across Department for Education owned schools. Lara’s team are currently delivering 6 new mixed-use, education led regeneration schemes which will create 600 new homes and classroom places for over 3500 children. They are also about to acquire 17 new sites for school building purposes across London, the South East, the Midlands and the North. LocatED join the conference to share insight into their strategy and identify future partnership opportunities.

DEFRA – James Greenway, Group Property Director

With 319 sites nationally across 223 locations, DEFRA have embarked on an ambitious estate rationalisation programme which will take the department out of urban centres and closer to communities and business that they aim to serve. Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic have forced the department to alter and reconfigure employee work spaces as since 2019 a further 1300 staff have been added to the department. James joins the event to discuss the adoption of technology and green infrastructure measures and future work programmes related to such as his team aim to make the department a leading example of sustainable property in government.

Cabinet Office – Angela Harrowing, Programme Director, Asset Efficiency and One Public Estate

The One Public Estate programme has made up to £180 million Brownfield Land Release Fund capital grant funding available to all constituent English councils to support the release of council-owned brownfield land for housing. Under the scheme derelict and underused brownfield sites across England will be transformed into thousands of new homes, creating thriving communities and levelling up the country. Angela joins the conference to update delegates on next stages of OPE while also discussing the drive to optimise government property across the UK

Network Rail Property – Robin Dobson, Group Property Director

Network Rail Property have ambitions to deliver 20 projects on the scale of York Central across the UK and Newcastle is one of their priority regeneration locations. With land owned around the station and big ambitions to develop it, Robin joins the event to go into more detail.

Faithful+Gould, member of the SNC-Lavalin Group – Hannah Evans, Director and Head of Central Government

More information to follow.

Cabinet Office – Mark Chivers, Director General for Government Property

Mark is responsible for providing senior, strategic leadership for the whole cross-government property function. He works with a wide range of senior stakeholders within government and in the wider public sector promoting the intelligent use of property to deliver better public services at lower cost to the taxpayer.

He provides strategic leadership for the Government Property Function and holds senior leaders accountable to the Government Functional Standard. He leads on major change programmes, supporting the delivery of better and more integrated public services, overseeing – among others – the Places for Growth programme and supporting the Levelling Up agenda.

ISG – Zoe Price, Chief Operating Officer UK Construction

Zoe Price is Chief Operating Officer (COO) for ISG, a construction specialist delivering places where people thrive. ISG has extensive experience working with central and local government clients across public sector frameworks, delivering workspaces, educational campuses, healthcare and research centres, justice and defence facilities, and more. Zoe believes we need to radically change traditional structures to be more collaborative, driven by a customer focus and emphasis on early engagement.

Mitie Group – Phil Bentley, Chief Executive Officer

Phil was previously Group Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless Communications plc from January 2014 until its sale to  Liberty  Global plc in May 2016. Prior to this  he was a  member  of  the  board  of Centrica plc from 2000 to  2013 whilst  also  Managing  Director of British Gas from 2007 to 2013,  Managing  Director,  Europe from  2004 to 2007 and Group Finance Director from 2000 to 2004. Phil’s earlier career was spent at BP 1980-1995, in international roles in the US, China and Egypt, and Diageo from 1995-2000.  Phil’s previous non-executive directorships include IMI plc from 2012 to 2014 and Kingfisher pc from 2002 to 2010. An accountant by profession, Phil holds a master’s degree from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau.

AA Projects – Sarah Butler, Associate Director

Sarah is the Local and Central Government Sector Lead at AA Projects. She is a Better Business Cases’ Registered Practitioner, supporting the NHS and wider public sector with the development of HM Treasury – Green Book compliant business cases and property strategies. Sarah has an MBA in Facilities Management and has over 10 years’ experience working in the property industry in a number of operational and strategic roles providing services to the NHS and the wider public sector. Experience includes: Operational Management, Facilities Management, Contract Management and Strategic Estates Planning.

Mitie – Mike Sewell, Plan Zero Director

With more than 25 years’ experience within the energy industry, Mike has been responsible for leading Mitie’s Plan Zero initiative since early 2021. Mike leads Mitie’s Plan Zero team in helping the business reach its Net Zero goals, as well as helping organisations across Britain reach their sustainability targets too. Mike specialises in identifying energy saving opportunities for Mitie’s clients and outlining their roadmap to Net Zero, by bringing together Mitie’s estate-wide decarbonisation solutions across energy efficiency, smart buildings, solar power generation, electric vehicle infrastructure, waste management, and biodiversity. Mike has worked with many leading energy and carbon service organisations including Dalkia, Enron Energy Services, Kier, Interserve and RWE. He is a Fellow of the Energy Managers Association (EMA), a Chartered Surveyor (MRICS) and, and an Incorporated Member of The Chartered Institute of Building (ICIOB).