Residential Property

Emma Fletcher MRICS

Low Carbon Homes Director, Octopus Energy

Emma is the Low Carbon Housing Director at Octopus Energy. Her career has centred on leading high impact, high innovation projects in real estate, with a particular focus on housing, energy performance and green energy production. Her practical experience includes starting her career in rural surveying and estate management moving into award-winning housing and regeneration developments. Emma is a passionate advocate for change, community resilience and sustainability solutions for all. She established and led the UK’s first fossil fuel-free district heating scheme in her village, Swaffham Prior. Her work regularly features in trade, national and international press & media.

Philip Brimley

Head of Property, Gascoyne Estates

With over two decades in the property industry, Philip’s journey began working evenings and weekends at a local estate agency. After a spell of refurbishing residential properties Philip started a career in Local Government which spanned 15 years. During this time, he completed a Diploma in Surveying, a Real Estate Management degree, and RICS chartered membership. His time spent at a borough council covered all areas of property and asset management, sales, lettings, acquisitions, land development and latterly regeneration. Philip is well versed in partnership working, having worked with the Hertfordshire LEP, Homes England and the One Public Estate programme. Philip sits on the Hatfield Renewal Board and the steering group for Platform Places, a social enterprise focused on a community led revival of the nation’s high streets. Currently Head of Property at the Hatfield Park Estate Philip manages the stewardship of nearly 200 residential properties and 120 commercial assets. Prioritising quality, innovation, sustainability and legislative compliance, his role includes directorship of multiple management companies.

Kate Charrington

Director, Projekt 3, Self-Employed

Kate Charrington is the director of Projekt 3. She supports residential surveyors to deliver improved home survey and valuation reports through enhanced and up-to-date content. Kate is a qualified retrofit coordinator and Climate Reality Leader. She is focused on driving sustainability and improved standards within residential surveying and is a regular contributor to panels and discussions. Kate has twice been shortlisted for RICS Young Surveyor of the Year, and has recently been on the Expert Working Group for the RICS Retrofit Standard. She is keen to drive forward the role of the residential surveyor, particularly at a time when we are seeing increased energy costs and the continuous impact of climate change on the homes we live in.

Joe Ellison

Business Improvement Manager, Pinnacle Surveyors

Joe Ellison specialises in residential survey and valuation in his role as a Chartered Surveyor and Business Improvement Manager at Pinnacle Surveyors; his job encompasses managing change and innovation within the business alongside working day-to-day as a practicing surveyor and valuer. Since qualifying in 2019, Joe has been named as a finalist at the British Mortgage Awards, a winner of RICS Matrics Residential Surveyor of the Year and a PropertyWeek Resi Trailblazer. Joe is also an Associate Tutor for UCEM and is in the final stages of completing an MBA through Nottingham Trent University.

Professor Richard Fitton

Professor Building Performance, Salford University

Richard holds a PhD in Building Physics and is also a chartered building surveyor. He leads a task group for the development of international standards around energy performance. Richard is the Chairman of the upcoming British Standard for Retrofit Assessment. He is also active the International Energy Agency studying the use of smart meter data to provide energy efficiency data for dwellings. He holds a place on the SAP Scientific Integrity Group at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which oversees the domestic energy model used in the UK. Richard is also the technical lead for the new Energy House 2 project, a building physics test lab.

James Ginley, FRICS

Director of Technical Surveying, e.surv

James joined e.surv in 2021, as Director of Technical Surveying, from Legal & General where he managed their lending portfolio, having previously held the role of Technical Director at Legal & General Surveying Services. He is a Fellow of the RICS and a member of the Equity Release Council Committee. James is an author of RICS guidance on valuation of new build properties and a regular commentator on the housing market and valuation practices.

Vanessa Griffiths

Partner, Knight Frank

Vanessa is a Partner in the Leasehold Reform and Litigation department at Knight Frank. She has been a member of the firm since 2010 and specialises in carrying out statutory and capital valuations of residential properties across Prime Central and Greater London. Vanessa advises landlords and tenants on leasehold reform matters and undertakes valuations in connection with negligence claims, as a Single Joint Expert for matrimonial disputes and other valuations where expert witness services are required. Vanessa is an RICS Isurv author for Enfranchisement valuations and an APC Assessor. She has also been an APC Mentor to candidates for the Residential pathway since 2012. Additionally, she volunteers for Inspiring the Future; a charity connecting workplace volunteers from all industries with schools and colleges.

Chris Hall

Technical Innovation Manager, NHBC

Chris is the Technical Innovation Manager at NHBC, the UK’s leading independent provider of warranty and insurance for new homes. He joined NHBC in 2015 and runs NHBC Accepts – a comprehensive review service for innovative construction systems. He is responsible for the maintenance of NHBC's policy and procedures to address Modern Methods of Construction, and to identify trends to inform risk management in non-conventional construction. He is a chartered member of the RICS and lives in Berkshire.

Khail Ur Rahman

Managing Director, ECOHDS Chartered Surveyors

Jane Seymour

Development Viability Advisor, Greater London Authority

Jane Seymour works as a development viability expert in the Mayor of London’s Viability Team. She has over 17 years of experience in advising on planning and development matters working for a number of London Boroughs including Southwark and the two Mayoral Development Agencies.

Jonathan Shaw

Operations Director, Harvey, Donaldson and Gibson

Zaman Sheikh

Owner and Director, Northwood Chelmsford and Black Marble Real Estate

Zaman is the owner and director of Northwood Chelmsford and Black Marble Real Estate. Zaman won the Young Surveyor of the Year Award 2022 and has a range of experience with Asset Management, Agency and Valuations.

Daniel Underwood

Managing Director, LendInvest PLC

Daniel is the Chief Credit Risk Officer for LendInvest PLC, an AIM-listed property finance and investment platform. Daniel is a member of the executive leadership team and a non-executive board director with a 25-year career in financial services and real estate finance across residential and commercial property, including short-term finance; mortgages; residential development; and debt recovery.

Malcolm Webb

Technical Director, Legal and General Surveying Services

Malcolm started work at 18 as a trainee Building Surveyor and has spent all his working life in surveying. During that time, he had great opportunities and experience by being flexible and exploring available options. He trained as a Building Surveyor by “day release” and achieved MRICS in 1994. He has been lucky to work in different fields including Project Management, Social Housing and the Valuation and Survey industry. Malcolm’s main focus since leaving project management has been residential property. He has experience of working in small practices, large corporates, Social Housing, as well as Lenders. This gives him a varied pool of knowledge and experience to draw upon. As Malcolm became more experienced, he liked to provide support to colleagues or mentor people in surveying. He has previously contributed to isurv and last year achieved the Mentoring Top Talent at The Institute of Leadership Management. The focus in recent years, since joining Legal & General, has been risk management for lenders and surveyors in areas including Quality, Property Risk, Lender Guidance, Professional Standards and PII. He has also previously contributed to industry groups including the CML (UKF), BSA, RSVG, HBF and other RICS Working Groups with Flooding and Home Survey Standards.