Meet EG’s public sector forum

When it comes to levelling up the UK, boosting the UK’s economy and delivering a built environment that provides for all – those that make a business out of it and those that live, work and play in it – proper public-private partnership is key. In fact, it is more than key, it is vital. But for too long the public sector and private sector have failed to communicate in a way that properly allows positive movement. There are outliers, of course, but generally, something always gets lost in translation. Part of EG’s purpose is to facilitate good things for the UK real estate sector. We have a responsibility as the trusted resource for the UK property sector to utilise our connections to help push the industry forward. And here, we believe that through an establishment of a new public sector forum, which sits alongside EG’s investor advisory group and our strong relationships with the consultancy community, we can finally create an environment where proper public and private partnerships can thrive, for the benefit of business, people and the planet. Meet the experts helping us guide the way. Jackie Sadek, chair, UK Innovation Corridor Jackie Sadek is chair of the EG Public Sector Forum and has more than 40 years’ experience in property, specialising in public-private sector partnerships.  A former specialist adviser to government on urban regeneration, Sadek now runs Urban Strategy, an urban regeneration consultancy.  She was part of the Grimsey Review team on the future of the high street and is an honorary Fellow of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors and chair of the UK Innovation Corridor, a bottom-up partnership of 15+ local authorities, six universities and hundreds of innovation and science companies in the London-Stansted-Cambridge sub region. Tom Stannard, chief executive, Salford City Council In his role as chief executive of Salford City Council, Tom Stannard supports the directly elected City Mayor, delivering local public services and improving the lives of Salford’s fast growing and diverse 270,000 population. Stannard’s background is in regeneration, economic development and skills. From 2018-21 he was Wakefield Council’s corporate director of regeneration and economic growth and also held roles including director of economy and skills at Oldham Council in Greater Manchester, deputy chief executive of the UK Learning and Work Institute, and senior leadership positions at councils including Blackburn with Darwen, the London Borough of Hounslow, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. At Salford he is responsible for a revenue budget of £220m and a capital investment programme of £115m per annum. Deborah Cadman, chief executive, Birmingham City Council Deborah Cadman has more than 30 years’ experience in public services. Prior to her appointment as chief executive of Birmingham City Council in June 2021, she was chief executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority.  She was previously local government adviser to the ministerial team at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, head of policy at Redcar and Cleveland Borough and the Audit Commission’s best value service lead inspector for the London region. Cadman has held a number of chief executive roles at all levels of government, including for St Edmundsbury Borough Council and East Suffolk Council, the East of England Regional Development Agency and Suffolk County Council. Mike Palin, executive director of markets, partners and places, Homes England Mike Palin is executive director of markets, partners and places at Homes England. He joined the government body in February 2021 as interim director of the cities and major conurbations team. He is a successful deliverer of economic growth strategies as well as being a leading thinker on how economic growth implementation can fit with broader policy initiatives. His focus is on implementation of strategies to deliver results. Palin is a former chief executive of St Helens Council, where he delivered a new economic approach that saw the borough have the second highest per capita jobs growth in the North of England and attracted some £500m of private sector inward investment. Michelle Sacks, chief executive, Huntingdonshire District Council Michelle Sacks became  chief executive of Huntingdonshire District Council in September 2023. Her previous roles incorporated responsibility for growth and inward investment and creating an environment within the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership (Boston BC, East Lindsey District Council and South Holland District Council) as the place to come and do business.  She works closely with stakeholders to understand their priorities and with politicians to take their ideas to inform delivery of corporate priorities. Jon McGinty, managing director, Gloucester City Council Jon McGinty has been MD of Gloucester City Council since 2015, joining the council from Aylesbury Vale District Council, where he was deputy chief executive. McGinty began his career in local government in 2007. He was previously a civil servant policy adviser and analyst for sixteen years, at the ONS and DCLG (now DLUHC). Sara Cameron, president, Association of Chief Estates Surveyors and Property Managers Sara Cameron is president of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors and Property Managers in the public sector. She is a Chartered Surveyor and fellow of RICS as well as being a chartered manager and member of CMI. Cameron has a strong track record of governance and strategic asset management in both the private and public sectors. She is passionate about using public property to deliver better outcomes, working collaboratively, and lowering the ladder for the next generation of surveyors to make a difference for our places, communities and environment. John McGill, director, UK Innovation Corridor John McGill is the director of the UK Innovation Corridor, a partnership linking London to Cambridge, which he helped to set up in 2012. McGill has more than 40 years’ experience working in local government as a strategic planner and economic development specialist mainly in North and East London and more recently in Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridge with a brief spell in Greater Manchester. He believes that the most successful and powerful partnerships are those which are built from the bottom up; where people, businesses and institutions come together and create their own story of change and growth. Ingrid Hooley, director of place, Local Partnerships Ingrid Hooley is director of place at Local Partnerships and has more than 30 years of public sector strategy, policy and delivery experience in economic development, planning, urban and rural placemaking, housing and regeneration.  Passionate about making a difference to people and places, Hooley started work in the late 1980s in Yorkshire with the Department of Trade and Industry, moving on to Regional Development Agencies in Yorkshire and London, then local authorities in London and the East Midlands. In her roles she has focussed on making a positive difference to people and where they live. She sees working in public and private partnerships as key to creating positive change to places. She has extensive experience in delivery and planning of strategic growth, complex programme management, place shaping, master-planning and infrastructure investment in national, regional and local government. Matt Gladstone, chief executive, Peterborough City Council Matt Gladstone became chief executive of Peterborough City Council in January 2023, joining from Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council where he was executive director for place. Gladstone has played key roles in shaping performance within local government and developing strong relationships with key partners in the business and voluntary sector to facilitate change and improvement. He currently has responsibility for overseeing and driving the improvement plan at Peterborough City Council. Rose Rouse, chief executive, Pendle Borough Council Rose Rouse has been chief executive of Pendle Borough Council in Lancashire since October 2021. Prior to this, she was chief executive of Eden District Council in Cumbria. Starting her local government career in policy and performance, Rouse moved into leading large front-line services and community-led regeneration projects, and has worked for a range of district councils in areas including Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and the North-West. Rouse is also vice-chair of the District Councils’ Network chief executives group and is facilitating delivery of DCN work on regeneration and growth. Jonathan Martin, director of inward investment, Waltham Forest Council Jonathan Martin has been at Waltham Forest Council for almost nine years and has focused on bringing inward investment into the region since joining the borough from Croydon Council in 2015. Chartered surveyor Martin has worked for national government agencies, private consultancy, and local government, playing key property-based roles, supporting the regeneration of places in London and the wider southeast. At Waltham Forest he is focused on securing new inward investment to help provide new homes, jobs, commercial floorspace and higher education with facilities to support this growth in town centres and high streets. Other members of the EG Public Sector Forum include Neil Webster, head of engagement at ACES, Gill Marshall, director at ECF, David Waterhouse, director of infrastructure at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Heather Jameson, editor of The MJ. Main image © Charles Deluvio/Unsplash; others supplied