People on the Move: UHY Hacker Young; FI Real Estate Management; Urban Splash; WSP; P4 Planning

Helen Cowley

Accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young Manchester has appointed Helen Cowley as tax partner as it looks to grow in 2020.

Helen, who will be based in the Manchester office, joins from national accountancy practice Baldwins where she worked with owner-managed businesses, independent professionals and global accountants and business advisors.

Helen provides tax advice to UK and overseas businesses and specialises in helping clients to enter new global markets, focusing on both international outward and inward trade and investment.

The UHY Hacker Young Group is one of the UK’s Top 20 accountancy networks with 110 partners and 620 professional staff working from 23 locations around the country.

Helen said: “UHY’s Manchester team is highly-regarded in the industry, known for providing valuable advice to clients.

“I’m excited to be working with such a well-respected team across the region and I look forward to being involved in a diverse range of projects. The decision to join the firm was instinctive for me.”

Mark Robertson, managing partner at UHY Hacker Young Manchester, said: “I am delighted Helen has decided to join us. Helen has a wealth of experience and is perfectly placed to advise on a range of UK corporate and personal tax matters, as well as VAT and employment taxes.

“She holds an exceptional tax knowledge and experience and she will be a valuable addition to our existing strong tax team.”

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FI Real Estate Management (FIREM) has bolstered its commitment to its industrial offering with a series of investments and a new talent hire, as it enters into 2020.

A Chorley-based landlord with industrial sites across the UK, FIREM has spent the past 12 months taking steps to upgrade its existing units and expand across its sites, with the overall sum of refurb works exceeding £1m.

In line with this investment, former business and investment lead for Wrexham Council, Rebecca Morgan, has now joined FIREM’s industrial team as its business development manager.

Rebecca has spent much of her career to-date supporting businesses in the area and appreciates the extent of regional demand for quality industrial space.

During her time working for the council, Rebecca supported a range of businesses, from large multinationals to local start-ups, and is now keen to help businesses grow and expand, taking advantage of the opportunities that FIREM have to offer.

Rebecca Morgan

Rebecca sai: “I’m delighted to have joined the FIREM team, who have always worked closely with their tenants and local councils to maximise the potential of the areas they’re operating in, which is essential for local and regional growth.

“I’ve seen this commitment first-hand over the years and am delighted to now be supporting this vision as part of their team.”

Speaking on behalf of FIREM’s industrial team, Matthew Pickles said: “Our continued investment across our industrial sites demonstrates just how much belief and confidence we have in these thriving business communities.

“We’ve known Rebecca for a long time, so it’s a pleasure to now welcome her to our team.

“As some of our tenants will already know, she is a fantastic facilitator having already introduced mutually beneficial tenants to one another.

“Equally, her extensive knowledge in local government equips her with the know-how when it comes to guiding tenants through the sometimes confusing world of business rates, business support and financial aid. Bringing Rebecca onboard has strengthened our industrial offering further and we are excited with what 2020 has in store.”

FIREM’s UK industrial portfolio is extensive. The largest estate within the portfolio is Wrexham Industrial Estate. At eight million sq ft, it is one of the largest estates in the UK.

FIREM is currently the largest landlord on the site managing 500,000 sq ft of existing industrial space, with ambitious plans to develop 200,000 sq ft of new-build in 2020 and further plans to expand and develop more quality industrial accommodation.

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Manchester-based Urban Splash House Holdings, trading as House by Urban Splash – the newly formed organisation between Japan’s biggest housebuilder Sekisui House, Homes England and Urban Splash – has made two significant appointments, with Claire Kober and Mark Shirburne-Davies both joining the business.

Essex-born Ms Kober will take on the role of independent director and chair of the board, helping House by Urban Splash upscale its creation of homes using modular methods of construction (MMC).

A dominant figure in the country’s housing sector, Claire is the MD of Homes at the Pinnacle Group where she is responsible for managing a portfolio of 24,000 mixed tenure homes across the UK.

She has also served at a senior level across local and national government, with past roles including chair of London Councils, and council leader for the London Borough of Haringey. Under Claire’s stewardship, it progressed from an underperforming authority to one of the country’s flagship councils.

Claire said: “I have a huge interest in housing and there’s significant synergy between the work being done by House and my own passion for addressing the UK’s housing crisis. I am impressed by the company’s pioneering attitude, innovative approach and hope to lend my experience and insight to the organisation moving forward.”

Claire Kober

Homes England interim Chair, Simon Dudley, said: “We’ve long said we’ll disrupt the housing market to increase the pace of construction and we’ve done just that by helping to bring Japan’s biggest housebuilder to UK shores to form a dynamic partnership with a leading SME builder.

“In Claire, House now has a highly-experienced political and business operator at the helm and we look forward to seeing the organisation’s next steps to make homes happen.”

Mark Shirburne-Davies will also join House as director overseeing the delivery of more than 400 new homes at the Northstowe new town in Cambridgeshire.

Mark’s unique property career include; construction director at Argent Related and COO for developer Pegasus Life, as well as three years in the UAE as executive vice president to ADAC, the fastest growing airport business in the world. He will apply his extensive knowledge in MMC that was developed leading Laing O’Rourke’s off-site manufacturing strategies, in Northstowe as House begins to deliver its first modular homes in the Spring.

Both appointments come just months after House announced the £90m partnership with Japan’s biggest housebuilder, Sekisui House, and Homes England – one of the sector’s biggest ever modular deals.

The dynamic collaboration is now accelerating the production of MMC homes – all of which are created in the House factory in the East Midlands – with ambitions to create thousands of new properties across the country each year.

Kenta Konishi, chief executive of Sekisui House in the UK, said: “As we bring our own new ideas to the UK, it’s important we collaborate with people already well experienced in the market to help us achieve our House objectives. We look forward to learning from Claire and Mark’s track records in handling the challenges and complexities of the sector.”

Urban Splash group chairman Tom Bloxham said: “We are thrilled to bring Claire and Mark’s skills into our House business. Claire is a strong advocate for change and championing new ideas – something which will help us develop and make our homes accessible to more people – while Mark’s international expertise will help us deliver an impressive new town for Cambridgeshire.”

House homes are currently on sale at sites in Manchester and Birmingham, with properties soon available in Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire, the Lake District, the Wirral and Walsall.

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Engineering and professional services consultancy WSP in Manchester is growing its specialist ecology team with the appointment of natural capital and biodiversity consultant, Laura Homfray.

Laura brings a wealth of expertise in the field of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) which, following the Government’s recent draft Environment Bill, looks set to become a mandatory requirement for all new developments in England within the next three years.

Laura has worked for WSP for more than three years and joins the team from her previous role in the business’s Bristol office.

She was a lead author of WSP’s Biodiversity Net Gain White Paper and has worked to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain on a range of large infrastructure projects, including the £41m Stockport Transport Interchange master plan.

Laura said: “Protecting biodiversity, supporting economic growth and the development of buildings and infrastructure are often seen as conflicting aims, but they are not.

Laura Homfray

“In its simplest terms, BNG is an approach to development that leaves the natural environment in a better state than it was previously, and through careful consideration and planning these three aims can be met together.”

WSP’s UK technical director for Biodiversity, Tom Butterworth, has worked with Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Footprint Ecology on the UK’s first city-wide study to improve biodiversity through development.

He said: “WSP is currently involved in a number of pilots across Manchester where we are working with developers to look at the possibility for gains through development.

“At WSP, our ecology team works alongside our environmental and planning experts, meaning we can factor in BNG at the earliest planning stages.

“If all local authorities have to adhere to the industry standard, called the DEFRA metric, when the Environment Bill become legislation, this approach could actually speed up the planning approval process in the long run and help deliver environmentally beneficial developments whilst protecting our biodiversity for generations.”

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Manchester-based P4 Planning is starting the year with another new addition to its planning advisory team.

Tom O’Kane joins as senior planner and will be working on P4’s growing portfolio which includes clients such as New World Trading Company, University of Liverpool, Seddon and Midia.

Tom OKane

Having worked both in-house at Salford’s Urban Vision and for the group Troy Planning + Design, Tom, 29, wanted to move into a role at an independent consultancy and targeted P4 Planning as an ambitious and growing team in the region.

Bill Davidson, director at P4 Planning, said: “Tom has got relevant experience from a variety of different roles which he will be able to bring to P4.

“We had a very positive end to 2019 with important consents secured for Bruntwood and Midia and have a busy start to 2020. He will be a huge help with our growing workload and ambitions for the future.”

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