Careers in Public Sector Housing Delivery - Hounslow

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hello I'm Toby Fox from 1.5 million new

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homes the local government challenge

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sponsored by Red Loft and Hadley

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Property Group so the government wants 1

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and a half million new homes built and

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its key delivery arm in delivering that

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National ambition is local government

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either as the planning Authority uh

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guiding the permission for new homes or

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as a partner in a JV with the private

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sector or in delivering homes directly

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themselves

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so I'm visiting a different Council

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every month to ask what works and What

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needs to change for councils to be able

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to deliver more homes and one of the big

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challenges facing councils is the

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Recruitment and the retention of the

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talent the skill that it requires to

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deliver new homes so I'm here in hsow

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with pratas suud from hsow Council to

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find out a little bit more about careers

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in public sector housing delivery so

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pratar hello do you want to tell us a

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bit about what your role is at hous

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Council so I'm currently assistant

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director for Housing Development Supply

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and that includes delivering new Council

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homes working with private developers to

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um secure planning permission and

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affordable housing on key strategic

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sites within the burrow and in addition

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to that it's working closely with our

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asset management colleagues and our

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housing management colleagues to

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allocate these new homes as well okay

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and what do what does that mean to

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allocate the new homes to provide homes

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for those most in need who are on the

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council's housing register waiting for a

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new home and making sure that we've

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handed the properties over they meet bya

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compliance and all the other sorts of

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statue requirements of new homes um and

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you know effectively pass the keys over

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to new tenants to live in a new home so

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you're going all the way from planning

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where those homes are going all the way

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through to actually talking about

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handing the keys over to the new tenants

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fantastic so what do you I mean a bit no

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brainer what do you love most about your

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job I think it's um It's The End Result

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it's and it's doesn't isn't something

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that happens quickly it takes a long

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time you know it could take four years

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from having an initial idea having a

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piece of land going through planning

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securing a contractor actually building

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the homes and then once they built

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actually handing them over to colleagues

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to give to our new residents and I think

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for me it's seeing that Journey um from

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I've been fortunate enough to see that

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Journey as well um at hanso from start

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to finish and it's providing a safe warm

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clean home for people that need it do do

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you find yourself walking past homes and

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thinking in your head oh that was one

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that I was involved in delivering um

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so it's sort of when you're walking

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around the bar driving around it's oh I

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was involved in that one um at planning

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stages

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and understand you know the difficulties

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that the developer might have had with

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local opposition from you know various

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stakeholders whether that's residents or

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politicians and um to see them s

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overcome some of those challenges and

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overcome you know some of um the

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policies that the council set um and

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actually see those new homes built is

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always um an achievement um and it's you

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know looking at the schemes right at the

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beginning and and right at the end as

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well and just following their Journey

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has been really

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um it's rewarding to see I've had a

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small part in a number of different

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schemes within the borrow but um you

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were just sort of starting to open up on

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some of the challenges involved in

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getting those those homes built so

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what's the toughest part of of what you

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do um I think it is when you're on the

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ground and you're actually trying to

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build and at the moment we've got a

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number of schemes that are really

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struggling because they can't get a

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utility connection for example so

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whether that be um electricity or water

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or and it's working it's not just

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working the council trying to sort of

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build it's working with all the other

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different stakeholders as well um to get

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that end product and often people think

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oh it's just a developer building out

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and it's not there's a number of

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different people that are involved

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different skills different Industries to

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make something happen um and part of

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your job is like assembling a jigsaw

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puzzle by putting all of those different

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stakeholders in place so that they're

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they're all working and overcoming any

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sort of challenges that come our way but

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you know equally it's just it is

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rewarding to see something built at the

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end of the process as well now I'm

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guessing from the interviews that I've

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done so far that nobody told you that

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this job was available to you when you

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were younger you you just kind of

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discovered it so what was your route

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into into housing delivery so um I did a

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geography degree en really enjoyed

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geography and you know one of the

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careers at the end of doing a degree was

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oh you can go into town planning um

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ended up doing a m in town planning um

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which again was exciting always enjoyed

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sort of architecture design places

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creating communities and it felt like

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sort of the N next sort of natural step

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or knew what a planner did but more

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mainly from a development management

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side so you know householder

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applications or developers submitting

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planning applications and so this is

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like someone wanting an

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extension or wants to build a small

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house or you know yeah um a block of

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offices so un stent that side of

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planning um never really knew about

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planning policy and a local plan and the

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planning framework until you know I

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joined local government and

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started my career out in planning policy

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how did you join local government um so

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I was fortunate enough to get onto a

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program called tomorrow's planners um so

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it was a program that was for primarily

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from people from a ban background ethnic

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minorities to get into planning at that

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point in time n Only 3% of the planning

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profession had was represented by ethnic

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minorities 3% 3% um and it was a great

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opportunity it was an opportunity that

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provided me with a placement and the

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local Authority um and provided the

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funds that paid for my masters as well

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right um so it was for me it was a bit

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of a no-brainer and you wanted to do T

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planning so to get the experience and

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actually get my foot through the door um

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right at the beginning of my career was

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um I was really fortunate and I think it

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probably have been harder if I'd just

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done left University gone away and done

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a masters full-time and then tried to

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apply for a job it probably wouldn't

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have been the easiest profession to get

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into um so and then I was worked in

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planning policy had Keen interest in

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housing policy as

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well um and then got the opportunity to

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do some estate

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regeneration so came over and sort of a

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housing delivery role um Miss my

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planning routes so missed um negotiating

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with private developers on like

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affordable housing sort of missed um the

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interaction with planning and F back

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into that through a housing enabling

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role so a big part of my role was to you

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know go into pre-application meetings so

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these are meetings that planning

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officers have um with developers before

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an application submitted um to explain

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what the planning policies are what

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um would be accepted what won't be

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accepted and you know that was the point

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where I would step in and provide how

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advice around housing for housing and

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actually what the council's expectations

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were in terms of per the number of full

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housing that we'd want on every single

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scheme going forward

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um and that

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was yeah probably lots of highlights in

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terms of you know being able to achieve

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40% affordable housing or meeting the

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actual t that the local planers set for

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schemes going through planning and going

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to planning committee was always really

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rewarding and this is like a negotiation

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what so what you're saying is that as I

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read it is that the bit you really enjoy

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is negotiating sitting there looking

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someone eye to eye and saying well you

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want this and I want this so how are we

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going to reach a compromise talk me

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through the sort of skills and the exper

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how you pick those skills up to do so a

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lot fits around viability so you know

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developer will say I paid x amount for

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the land I've really got x amount left

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to build here are all my bill costs and

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you

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know um this is the Quantum of

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affordable housing that could provide

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you and it was it's always negotiating

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well actually you can get 40% we might

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just need to play around with the mix

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that you've got on site or actually I

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can accept something slightly less than

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40% um however need to make sure you've

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got X number of three bedroom homes and

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two bedroom homes one bedroom homes and

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need to make sure that you're meeting

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wheelchair requirements so it's not it

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wasn't always about the percentage of

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affordable housing you're getting a site

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it's actually the quality as well um you

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know a developer might come to me and

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say I can give you 40% but they're all

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one bedroom units and that doesn't

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create a place or a community um you

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know I need a mix of housing to meet my

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housing need um to meet the needs of

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those households on our housing stuff

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and is this a natural skill that you've

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got this ability to kind of negotiate

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and argue and haggle or is this

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something that you've you've had to

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learn how to do it I think I it's

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something that I learned and I learned

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from sort predecessors who were in the

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role who are very passionate about

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afford housing so it was always very

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nice to work in an environment where

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people really believed in what they were

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doing and I think a lot of it has been

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learn it's not something that can be

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taught to you um and lot of that

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ambition sort of set out by are

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political leaders as well so we at the

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heart of the administration of for

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housing is really important to them and

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really important to planning committee

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that gives you the confidence to be able

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to go and negotiate and get you know a

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politicians or Administration exactly

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what they want um in terms of affordable

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housing so you mentioned learning from

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predecessors how important is mentoring

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in in advancing your career in local

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government and how do you go about

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getting a mentor y um so I think it's

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really important to have um line

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managers who support you and you know um

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who you learn from and who are

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passionate about certain um subjects

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it's also important to have colleagues s

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outside of your area as well who helped

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support you I think in terms of

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mentorship I got a mentor when I did the

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future of London leaders course which

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was really helpful um and it was around

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sort of developing my leadership skills

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and you know helping me understand you

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know what my next steps were in my

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career and um they sort of help you find

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your next PATH and um The Journey that

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you're on so that's future of London is

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an organization it's London only but um

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it's formed by local authorities in in

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London to create the next generation of

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leaders right yeah um in this sort of

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regen environment that we work in so

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lots of leaders that go on the course

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are from Li authorities or in planning

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or in um housing delivery estate

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regeneration um so it's really nice to

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meet up with a cohort of people who are

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on the same Journey as you but equally

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for me it was like being able to have a

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mentor um to help

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me develop my leadership skills so who

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is your Mentor who are you going to give

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a shout out to um NY Stone who's really

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passionate about for the housing um and

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a key player when she was at hanslo

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um other mentals have been sort of you

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know ex-leader of the council as well

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Council curan was like really passionate

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about forall housing and I think he

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drove that Um passion through to

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officers developing you know affordable

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housing um so I think yeah again being

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very lucky to have different people

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within um my career helping me on that

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journey and you know most recently s of

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Peter O'Brien as well who you know is

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bringing a wealth of experience to

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hanslow and helping us on our next

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program and you so you talked about you

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the sort of career Journey that you've

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been on think about that that Arc of

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your career the speed of which your

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career has Advance how does that compare

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with contemporaries of yours with people

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you were at school and college with in

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who were in other sectors

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um I think so my contemporaries I think

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we've all developed at a similar sort of

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level um you know some of my

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contemporaries lawyers and partners um

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who you

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know have done exceptionally well um

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most have gone into sort of management

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positions so I think it's um and even

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the cohort that is started out with in

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planning when I first started in my

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career you know lot of them gone to be

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heads of service and directors as well

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um so I've been quite fortunate to be

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surrounded by people whove sort of you

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know excelled in their careers no matter

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what they've done why is that fortunate

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because you talk to each other and and

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support each other or yeah I think so um

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and you know come from a family where my

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sisters as well you know who excelling

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in their careers and I think growing up

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it was always you know you work hard and

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you'll reap the rewards and that's what

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we s tend to

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do so what advice would you have for

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someone who is thinking about what steps

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to take in their in their career may

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maybe they haven't even started yet

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they're at College they're thinking

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about their future or maybe they're

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doing something they're not that happy

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with what what advice would you have for

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them about about working in the public

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sector housing the I think it's a really

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interesting time so we've got had three

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apprentices come through um join

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recently so they've come through as

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housing apprentices um and obviously

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what we do in economic growth and

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regeneration slightly different to you

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know how in case work or um letting

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houses and you know dealing with sort of

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the people side of things we deal with

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the bricks and the morar um but it was

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sort of with them I've sort of said to

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them you know there's a number of

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different things that you can do in

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local Authority go through your

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different apprentices um I had one of my

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apprentices who said to me can I stay in

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um with you and you know do my two years

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here and I've said no I'd like you to go

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and actually experience all the

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different departments within housing

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within local government and then make a

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decision because

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actually there's more to local

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government then just has of delivery or

15:47

planning or you know you could go and

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work in the communities team or the

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locali team and and I think that's what

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makes local government really special

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because actually you can find skill set

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and you can move around and I've been

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fortunate enough to do that within my

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career as well that's a a Tough Lover

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approach PR no I I think it's really

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important I think if you're at the start

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of your career you don't want to regret

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having stayed in the same role and not

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have the opportunity and the experience

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I think when you're an apprentice and

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you've got that opportunity to go and

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experience different things you should

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take it and then you make a decision and

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it's not forever you know these

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placements are for six months at a time

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so PR thank you very much for your

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contribution to 1.5 million new homes

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and getting them built and so another

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episode of 1.5 million new homes the

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local government challenge sponsored by

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Red Loft and Hadley Property Group comes

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to a close we're going to be back with

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more but until then if you like what

16:48

you've seen please click like or

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seeing you next time thank you