Our neighbourhoods team has over 20 years of very broad experience in providing independent advisory services to residents and managing community consultations.
Gary De Ferry
Associate Director — Regeneration
Gary worked for over 30 years in social housing, starting as a trainee and holding senior and executive posts in local government, the voluntary and private sectors. Since leaving his last post as the Chief Executive of a successful community based housing association, he has worked as a senior consultant specialising in resident involvement in housing and regeneration. Gary also holds senior voluntary posts with two charities.
Eamonn England
Associate Communications Manager
Eamonn is responsible for all our communications and marketing activities, from our website, media relationships and social networks, through to publicity materials, communications strategy and the management of our company brand and project brands. He is a highly experienced communications and marketing professional with a wide range of experience in both the public, private sectors, and creative industries. He has spent time working in local government, education and teaching, the voluntary and community sector, and as a communications consultant.
Rob Lantsbury
Associate Independent Resident Adviser
Rob’s career spans 39 years in the social housing world which has included spells in Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and London wide with the GLC. He has held senior management roles for local authorities, housing associations and a tenant management cooperative before specialising in resident participation within social housing. Rob’s last full time appointment was for Poplar HARCA where he was the Resident Empowerment Manager.
Edward Ugundele
Housing and Regeneration Consultant
Edward is a housing and regeneration professional, independent resident adviser, and trainer, with 22 years of wide-ranging private, community and public sector experience. He has specialist expertise in community involvement, capacity building, housing management and regeneration. Edward’s previous roles include Director of Revenue and Tenancy Services for CBHA (Peabody Group) and as Head of Housing for Community Trust Housing.
Simon Slater
Associate Independent Resident Adviser
Simon was policy adviser to the London Borough of Hackney’s Chair of Housing during the development of Hackney’s Comprehensive Estate’s Initiative, the Hackney Housing Partnership and the Hackney Estate Regeneration Strategy. He led the Strategic Urban Futures Ltd (StUF) project team engaged on the community consultation of the Gospel Oak environmental masterplan in Camden, carried out resident consultation on the housing masterplan for the Myatts Field Estate in Lambeth, and advised residents involved in the review of the masterplan on the Woodberry Down Estate in Hackney.
Christine Searle MBE
Associate Independent Resident Adviser
Inducted into the ‘Inside Housing – Hall of Fame’ for her role in promoting resident involvement, and awarded an MBE for services to communities in 2004, Christine has assisted a number of landlords in their approach to resident governance and resident scrutiny, and has been involved in providing independent advice on a number of high profile regeneration schemes. Christine was Chair of Poplar HARCA for nine years, having been a member of the board for 11 years. She served as an adviser on the National Community Forum, for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), for three years.
Ifte Ahmed
Regeneration and Development Consultant
Ifte has 15 years’ experience in housing regeneration and development, from small-scale residential projects to large scale social and private housing projects. He was Housing Manager at Popular HARCA Housing Association for four years and has since worked as a consultant on redevelopment and regenerating projects including London’s Balfron Tower and the Aberfeldy Village. Passionate about contributing positively to inner city regeneration and development, Ifte is a confident communicator, with a particular specialism in mediation.