Vicky Kells (pictured), partner, who leads the social housing finance team, and Lindsay Felstead, partner, who leads the housing management team will jointly lead the sector across all of the seven regional offices.
Both are already actively involved in the sector as part of the firm’s social housing management team.
The appointments come as previous head Kary Withers steps down from the role to become managing director of the property services division, taking over from Graham McIntyre.
Clarke Willmott CEO, Stephen Rosser, said: ‘We are delighted to announce that Vicky Kells and Lindsay Felstead will be joint heads of our social housing sector. Both Vicky and Lindsay are integral to the sector and have extensive experience and connections within social housing so the sector will be in very capable hands. Both are already heavily involved in decision making as part of the management team and I know they have some big ideas for the sector in the coming months. I’m pleased these planned changes have been able to take place despite the challenges faced recently due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Vicky Kells has 21 years’ experience and specialises in secured lending and large-scale due diligence exercises (including stock transfers) within the affordable housing sector. She has extensive experience of working with housing associations, including large national RPs and Welsh RSLs, and lenders on all property security aspects of loan facilities, private placements and bond issues.
She said: ‘I’m excited to get started as joint head of sector alongside Lindsay. We have already started making plans for how we want to position ourselves in the next few months and how we build on the excellent reputation we have gained while Kary was in charge.’
Lindsay Felstead has 18 years’ experience in social housing, providing representation on behalf of local, regional and national housing providers and local authorities in all aspects of housing management. Lindsay is dual qualified as a barrister and routinely represents clients in court seeking anti-social behaviour injunctions, possession claims based upon complex issues of hoarding and seizure of controlled drugs and committal proceedings.
She said: ‘Kary has done a fantastic job of heading up the sector and as a result we have seen an increase in instructions from retained and new clients as well as an increase in turnover. Vicky and I hope to build on this good work and continue providing our clients with the high-quality service they have come to expect.’
